Starting Out Newbie
by Kenocka
Summary: Belle's a newbie Pokémon Trainer, Dante's a Gym Leader, and Mewtwo's regretting he ever saved the girl. My name is Mewtwo. NOT Fuzzylumpkins.
1. Day One: Morning

Disclaimer: Anything owned by Nintendo is owned by Nintendo. Anything owned by the owners are owned by the provided owners.

Speaking Parts: _'Thoughts' "Telepathy"_ "Vocalized Speech"

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I feel the need to stress that I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE for this piece of work. There are going to be MANY different writers involved with this series and it will take varying amounts of time to edit and piece together each chapter for everything to make sense. Some parts of everyone's writing may be cut out for the sake of storytelling, flow, and sensibility. Yes I may edit some parts so that they aren't so choppy ESPECIALLY if there are A LOT of mistakes. So to my co-writers PLEASE DO NOT FEEL OFFENDED if I happen to cut out a sentence or a paragraph that I feel doesn't make ANY sense in the long haul. I SPEND HOURS going over EVERYTHING just to make sure ONE SENTENCE makes sense in the overall story. If it doesn't then it's removed.

* * *

Day One: Morning

Mewtwo didn't visit cities without good reason and he was questioning his reason for being out during the day every few seconds. Dante had asked him to come along if only to keep him from being so aimlessly bored in the Genesia Gym and to keep him away from the Hydreigon. The thing _still_ wanted to eat him after chasing him all over the forest and destroying several of Blyse's buildings the year before. Nothing could change the beast's mind that the cat who'd all but moved into the Gym Leader's spare room was lunch meat marinating in a juicy skin sack.

The cat grew bored of the city and informed Dante that he would be waiting on the outskirts when he was done checking on the new batch of Trainers from Valerian's Lab. Without waiting for a confirmation Mewtwo flew far quicker than most cameras or eyes could follow. He landed in the tall grass just off the main dirt road that served as Route 1.

* * *

Belle, after rapping furiously on the door and getting no reply cautiously opened the door to the lab and peered inside. Lights on, nobody home. Creepy much? She stepped inside, shutting the door behind her. Shrugging she hurried up to the little platform where several Pokéballs sat. She'd contacted the Professor earlier to let her know she was coming, but she must have been out in the field or something. She crouched down, examining each of the little Pokéballs. After a few minutes of thinking she picked up the one containing what she deemed to be the cutest, smiling at it. "You're mine, sweetie-pie!" Cheerfully, she turned and retreated from the lab, shutting the door behind her and hurried to the city with her new Charmander in hand.

Belle's eyes, massive as she took in as much of Blyse as she could, roamed around with curiosity, fascinated by what she saw. It was far bigger than Iclea, that was for sure. Glancing down she noticed her new Pokémon, the Charmander, walking a little ahead of her, unconsciously leading her. She smiled and decided to follow the little thing. A small bench caught her eye and she called out, "Come on, dearest! How about we sit down?" The Pokémon turned around a stared at her for a long moment before complying and following her to the bench.

She sat down and watched as the little Charmander climbed her way up before sitting next to her and watching her new Trainer expectantly. "So... uh... You need a nickname! I can hardly go around calling you by your species name! How about, er, Celisse?" The Pokémon nodded, somewhat satisfied, and turned to stare straight ahead while settling back, tail hanging between her legs and off the bench's edge to avoid setting it ablaze. "Well, Celisse, it's a pleasure to meet you. Are you hungry?" Celisse did not turn her head so Belle could only assume that she was not. "Alright. Oh, right, my name is Belle. I'm your new Trainer!" Again Celisse did not react. Trying to think nothing of it Belle sat back, watching her new friend.

"So um. Did you want to go out onto Route 1 and train?" This time Celisse's blue eyes showed some emotion when she turned to look at Belle. She gave a single nod and slid off, waiting for Belle to do the same. Smiling the girl stood, pleased that she had gotten through to her starter. "Alright. Uh, do you know where Route 1 is?" Belle swore she saw Celisse facepalm.

Glancing around she noticed a little boy walking into the city from the same way she had come. On closer inspection he had a blue and white Pokémon walking behind him. Curious about the new creature Belle dug around in her bag for a moment before producing her Pokédex. She'd been too excited to wait for it so she had had Valerian's aide mail it to her. The whole way to Blyse she'd been pointing it at random Pokémon to see what they were. Now she pointed it at the blue and white creature. The red light beeped and the device came to life announcing, "Oshawott, the Sea Otter Pokémon. It fights using the scalchop on its stomach. In response to an attack, it retaliates immediately by slashing."

"Oooh. Looks cute. What do you think Celisse?" The Pokémon stared at her. "Okay. Well, let's go say hi." She moved forwards, Celisse in tow. As she approached the little boy, she smiled, coming to a stop in front of him. "Well, hi, there. My name's Belle. Who might you be, little man?"

* * *

Dante Serven strolled the streets of Blyse City, keeping a careful eye out both for the object of his search - Professor Valerian - and for anyone who looked like a new Trainer. He'd arrived at the professor's lab earlier that morning, intending to drop by and check out the new crop of Trainers, but he'd found no one there at all - a mystery considering the professor's usual habit of greeting each new Trainer. With Mewtwo still out doing who knew what and no easy way to contact the cat, Dante had elected to comb the streets of Blyse for the errant professor, hoping along the way to find her.

As he walked, the Gym Leader noticed a pair of Trainers on the streets, evidently brand new given their enthusiastic discussion about Pokédexs and starters. Dante smiled ruefully, remembering his first day as a Trainer. "Hello there," he said, walking over. "You must be new Trainers."

Belle turned around when she heard another voice. Her eyes landed on a man a bit older than her. She smiled at him while saying, "Yes, we are." She extended a gloved hand. "Hello, my name is Belle, I'm from Iclea Town. Might I ask your name?" This was so interesting. She knew everyone back home, but a few minutes in a new city and she'd already met two new people.

"Name's Dante," the Gym Leader replied, forgoing his last name. After his literary career took off and he became the leader of Genesia's Gym, Dante found it necessary to operate under a certain degree of anonymity. Once Mewtwo started staying with him, it was more crucial than ever that he keep a lower profile than before. He didn't think the girl would know who he was even if he told her but discretion was usually a good idea. "I'm from Genesia and stopped by Blyse to take a look at the new Trainer crop. You just started your journey, huh? Why aren't you out on Route 1 yet?"

Belle grinned at him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Dante." The name Dante, coupled with that he came from Genesia was vaguely familiar but she couldn't place where she'd heard it from. Oh well. She was sure it would come to her later. At him asking her why she hadn't gotten onto Route 1, she flushed with embarrassment. "Uh funny story, really. You see, I've never been out of Iclea Town like this before, so I was kinda lost and I wasn't sure where the start of Route 1 was. Do you think you could point it out to me?"

Celisse, apparently bored with this conversation, stalked over to Dante and sniffed his leg for a moment before snapping her fanged jaws at it. Belle, horrified by this, reached down and lifted her Charmander up from the waist, holding her to her hip like a child and careful not to touch the lizard's tail.

"I am so sorry, Dante! I just got her, I don't know why she would do that." As for Celisse, she made a cheerful, "Chaaaaar," clearly pleased with what she had done. "You hush, dearest."

"Oh, it's quite alright," Dante replied, laughing a little. "I've seen a _lot_ worse than a few nips from a Charmander in my time, let me tell you." _'Such as trying to control a three-headed, pseudo-legendary beast.' _He shivered slightly. Training Xeon had been touch-and-go for the first few weeks after his evolution and Dante had spent more time at Rae's place getting treated for bites than he had spent at home. Compared with training a Pokémon that was known as "the Brutal Pokémon" a Charizard was relatively tame and a Charmander absolutely docile.

"Here, I can show you the way," Dante said, gesturing with his head in the general direction of the route. "Come on, let's get you started already."

Belle tilted her head, confused. What on earth could be worse than a Charmander bite? The horror of it! It might even draw - dare she say it - _blood!_ She quivered at the very thought. Trying to shake off that terrible reflection, she nodded at his offer. "Oh, thank you so much, Dante! I really appreciate this." She put Celisse back down again - she was a bit too heavy for her - and hurried after him, the Charmander a bit more reluctantly than her new Trainer.

They approached the route pretty quickly with Dante leading. Rather foolishly she hurried out into the grass, excited to battle her first Pokémon. Celisse followed much more apprehensively. It wasn't long before Belle saw a small patch of grass tremble before something leaped out of it.

"Aaaah!" she screamed. "Celiiiiiiiisse! Attaaaaaaaack!" The Pokémon appeared to be a blue cat-thing. Of sorts. She knew she'd seen it before but she couldn't place the name. "Celisse! Use, um - wait!" Belle waved her Pokédex at the Charmander, ignoring the introduction it gave her. She tapped a few buttons and two moves popped up. "Okay! I -" She broke off upon seeing Celisse be knocked backwards, arms wheeling.

Celisse growled angrily, tail flame flaring up. "Scratch it!" The Pokémon nodded at the command, launching forwards and slashing down upon the creature with her glowing white claws. Unfortunately the blue thing dodged before slamming its body into the lizard. Celisse tumbled to the ground while wincing. Aghast Belle yelled out, "Try to Scratch it again!" The Charmander leaped back on her feet but was somewhat unsteady. Before she could get around to attacking again the other Pokémon slammed into her and knocked her down again. This time Celisse could not stand.

The other Pokémon readied itself for another attack. Belle, terrified, rushed forwards and scooped her Charmander up into her arms, turning her back to the wild Pokémon and bracing herself for the impact.

* * *

Having sensed Dante moving out of the city and back out onto Route 1 where he'd entered Blyse Mewtwo had moved closer to the road. He was sitting hunched over in the waist high grass in ways only a cat wouldn't find uncomfortable to avoid being spotted by some green Trainer idiot that thought their newly begotten Charmander was the best and strongest thing alive. He wouldn't fight any maniac child that thought challenging him was a worthwhile waste of his time because it would only result in the poor Pokémon getting hurt and the kid blacking out as he erased their memory and moved them to a Pokémon Center. Telepathically the psychic called Dante closer to where he hid himself through a mixture of imparted visuals from his own mind and basically giving him a game of psionic Marco Polo. It was a very basic way of communicating for psychics and to be honest Mewtwo was just being lazy by not directly telling the Gym Leader where he was at.

All of his attention was rapidly diverted at the sound of what seemed to be a Pokémon battle. He allowed his powers to carry him just barely off the ground as he moved closer to what was sounding more and more like a losing fight. The Trainer was a newbie if her hesitance in giving her Pokémon commands was any indication of her skill level - which seemed to be lacking. For the moment he was content with "watching" the battle through his sixth sense and blatantly reading the girl's surface thoughts. She had no idea what she was doing despite being a late bloomer to the Trainer trade. One would think that she would have the advantage because of this but that was clearly not the case here.

Then came the moment that was the deciding factor in this match; the Trainer's starter couldn't go on because of her mistress' ineptitude and collapsed. Most normal Pokémon on the beginner routes would take that victory and walk away but the fallen Charmander's opponent - a Shinx - wasn't acting normally and was probably driven by hunger. It jumped at the defenseless girl as she held her fainted fire lizard; even weak Pokémon could do severe damage to a human. Before he could think or second guess himself the cat stood up and threw a dark sphere of energy at the feline. It was the only attack he thought to use to stop the creature and because of his superior strength the attack was super effective.

All he had to deal with now was the fact that he had allowed himself to be seen by someone other than Dante. Would Genesia's Gym Leader object to him mind-wiping the girl and anyone else who might have seen him?

* * *

Belle gasped in surprise when something dark shot past her, hitting the wild Pokémon squarely in the side and knocking it unconscious. She whirled around, staring at the unmoving Pokémon before glancing down at Celisse who gave a soft groan. She reached out and stroked the poor thing's head tenderly before realizing that the attack must have come from another Pokémon. Confused she turned around trying to find the source. She found it. It was - she didn't know what it was. Purple. Big. Clearly Pokémon but she'd never seen something like this before. It was humanoid but she'd never seen something look _anything _like this. Cautiously, she took a step forwards, calling out, "Uh. H-hello? Thank you for saving me."

Mewtwo turned his attention to the girl and shrugged. It hadn't been something he'd thought too long about, inaction would have been ineffective in the situation. She was inexperienced; the only _other _person who was capable of helping her had been off in la-la land so he was the only one left that could do anything.

Dante hurried over to the scene, anxious about Mewtwo being seen in public, concerned for the girl's safety and a little curious as to the psycat's actions. From the time they'd spent together Dante had gathered that Mewtwo was not a selfless person. The mere fact, therefore, that the Psychic had defended a young Trainer - and revealed himself in the process - was astounding. _'Guess you do learn something new every day,' _the man thought as he hurried to the girl's side.

"Mewtwo, get off the route, there could be people coming by," Dante said tersely to the psycat. "What are you doing? Someone could see you." In truth he was only concerned for Mewtwo's sake - there could have been any number of people who witnessed the event and would remember the white feline Pokémon. Fortunately the route looked somewhat empty.

"Are you alright?" Dante asked as he turned to Belle. "Sorry I wasn't able to intervene in time." He had, in all honesty, been too caught up with nostalgia to do much more than simply follow the girl onto the route, instead reliving the memories of his first day as a Trainer. He still remembered it now - Dahlia by his side, a Pokédex tucked into his jacket and an overwhelming feeling of optimism. It was a shame that the girl's experience had been ruined through his own inaction.

Mewtwo gave Dante a narrow-eyed Look that communicated his feelings for the Gym Leader's lapse in concentration and focus. It spoke of how the Gym Leader should have been paying attention to his surroundings even on a beginner route if not for the sake of the girl then for his own safety. Weak foundlings like the Shinx he'd knocked unconscious targeted humans that looked like easy pickings and lost in thought humans counted as such. The cat gave him another look that Dante had seen on more than one occasion since the two had known one another. It was asking if he'd actually mind if Mewtwo erased the memories of the newbie.

Dante gave the psycat a hard Look of his own. Mewtwo already knew his thoughts on altering memories, regardless of keeping his identity a secret. Erasing the memories of children seemed even worse - they had so few thoughts already. "Get yourself out of here, I'll deal with this," Dante said curtly to Mewtwo. "Go find somewhere to hide."

Mewtwo returned the look and flicked his tail crossly. Dante didn't have to worry about some overly eager idiot getting a hold of a Master Ball and capturing him. He would take the man's words as advice and not the command they made themselves out to be. In an over the shoulder sort of way, as he was making his way out into the tall grass that even most experienced Trainers avoided, the psychic informed Dante that the girl was completely unskilled in the ways most younger newbie Trainers weren't. The foolish child didn't have any kind of camping supplies! She probably couldn't light a fire or dig a necessity pit or do anything that would keep her alive on her journey.

In short: find the girl's family and inform them of the predicament of their woefully under-prepared daughter. Also convince her to forget that he existed.

* * *

Belle turned around when she heard Dante's voice. She thought she'd left him back in Blyse? Ah, well. It was good that he was here or maybe it wasn't. After all, she'd just completely screwed up in front of someone and a Pokémon. Ugh. She felt like a fool. He confused her as to how he knew the Pokémon. Then her confusion cleared up. It must have been his Pokémon. She nodded at him, "Yes, I'm alright." She looked down at Celisse. "But I can't say the same for my Pokémon here." She peeked back up at Dante, a guilty look in her eye. "I just screwed up big time, didn't I? I suppose most people don't completely screw up on their first battle." The newbie turned to the fallen Shinx, withdrawing a Pokéball. She threw it at the unmoving thing and it was caught inside, trembling for a few moments before settling. "Yaaay!"

With Mewtwo dealt with Dante turned back to the little girl. "Look you didn't screw up," he said, trying to sound encouraging. "Everyone makes mistakes alright? What's important is that you learn from it. And everything turned out alright didn't it? You even found yourself a new friend," he said, gesturing to her new Pokéball. "Here, take these." Dante tossed her a pair of Revives and Potions.

Belle nodded hesitantly at Dante's words. Still she felt rather depressed that she'd harmed Celisse so badly. She shifted the weight of her Charmander to one hip when he threw her the objects, catching them lightly. She wasn't uncoordinated so it wasn't all that hard. She tucked those away in her bag before smiling at Dante again. "Thank you so much!" Careful to balance Celisse, she picked up the Pokéball with the Shinx inside. "Hmm you can be Lucius!" Pleased with her nickname for it she clipped the Pokéball to her belt, turning to face the odd Pokémon again. "Uh thank you again, ma'am - sir - thing."

Unfortunately, the purple Pokémon showed no signs of understanding her. She sighed. She'd thought it might be something special, like a Psychic or Ghost type, but it just seemed to be a regular old one. Belle assumed that Dante wanted time to talk to the Pokémon, so she started moving back towards Blyse City. "I'm just going to the Pokémon Center; I need to get these ones rested up." She hurried back to the city, easily able to spot the colorful center. She entered curiously, looking around. It seemed to be nearly identical to the one in Iclea. Fascinating. She caught sight of Nurse Joy behind the counter, and approached her quickly. "Hello, there. My name is Belle. I was wondering if you could take care of my Charmander and Shinx - they were injured in battle."

"Of course, of course! Welcome to Blyse Belle. I haven't seen you here before," Joy responded, accepting the proffered Pokéball and Charmander and vanishing, a Blissey trailing in her wake. Belle shrugged, wandering over and sitting down on one of the seats, watching the others in the waiting area. Most were Trainers, urgent to get their teams healed up. Poor Nurse Joy - she must have countless patients and needed to work on them immediately. It wasn't long before she was called up and the Nurse gave her back her Pokémon, declaring them healthy again. Belle nodded her thanks and left.

Celisse was clearly annoyed at her Trainer. She walked a few feet in front, tail waving from side to side. "Err we're going to go back to the route okay? For some more training?" The Pokémon nodded, switching direction and heading back out to the others.

* * *

_'Mewtwo, where are you?'_ he thought privately. _'We'll need to be going soon, this place is about to be crawling with Trainers.'_

_"Far afield,"_ answered Mewtwo of Dante's thoughts. Living in close quarters with the man lent him a special sensitivity to his thoughts. Sometimes that was a problem but right now it wasn't. The simple "speech" that most psychic Pokémon used (direct sharing of emotions and memories and current thoughts) wasn't getting through to the man in his distraction with the child. _"The girl has no survival skills or supplies. She has no idea what to do with herself outside of a city. As you are the only league official around you may want to make the girl invest in some equipment for her journey and guide her for a short amount of time. Otherwise her affluent family may see fit to try and remove you of your title as Gym Leader."_

He hadn't had to read the girl's mind to know that she came from money; her clothing said it for her and her incompetence with directing her partner in battle let him know that no preparation had been made for her new path in life. It wasn't uncommon for Trainers just starting out to fumble some but most at least knew enough to keep their Pokémon from collapsing in their first battle against a wild opponent.

Besides if Dante lost his title as a Gym Leader then Mewtwo wouldn't have a place to crash or a person to challenge to chess matches anymore. The cat had quickly become spoiled - not that he would ever admit to it - by not having to live out in the wilds if he chose not to.

* * *

Belle approached Dante again as she reached the city's outskirts, Celisse beating her to him. The Charmander roughly tugged on the man's pants, indicating her desire for attention. The girl reached down and picked up her Pokémon again, hoping she hadn't disturbed him. "So, was that your Pokémon? That saved me? It must be very well trained, it acted without your command," she mused. She'd like a Pokémon like that, one that could know how and when to help others while she wasn't present but she knew that that would be a while away. Nonetheless, she considered herself lucky to have Celisse and Lucius. One step at a time, right?

Dante felt suddenly besieged. The Trainer he'd come out to the route with was asking him questions and on top of that he still had Mewtwo to deal with. _'I guess this is why I'm getting paid a lot to be a Gym Leader,'_ he thought with a half-smile. _'No one else would voluntarily take this job.'_

"He's not really _my_ Pokémon, per se," Dante explained to Belle. "We met a while back and I helped get him out of a sticky situation - well, it was mostly my fault to begin with, but that's a story for another day." He hesitated for a second, attempting to find the right words to say to the girl.

"Ah. So it just follows you around?" That was odd. She'd never heard of that before. Why did he not just catch it? What a confusing guy. He was so strange.

"Look, do you have any outdoor clothing or camping equipment?" he finally asked. "It's a long hard road from here to the next town and you need to be prepared. You look like you're walking around a mall, not traveling the region." He felt a little bad for telling the girl off but Mewtwo was right on both accounts - without proper preparation the girl would meet disaster along the road and Dante could be held liable.

Dante's question confused her. "Er, outdoor and camping equipment? You mean like sunscreen? I'm pretty sure that I can just get that at the mall here. Besides, I'm _meant _to look like I'm walking around a mall. I mean, what else would you want to look like? Like you're doing _manual labor?_" She wrinkled her nose. "Don't be silly, Dante."

If he could have facepalmed without making the girl feel bad, Dante certainly would have. _'Does she know_ nothing _about being a Pokémon Trainer?'_ he thought to himself in exasperation. "Sunscreen _is_ important, yes, but you need more equipment than that. A tent's probably a good idea, as are cooking materials, fire starters, a sleeping bag and mat, and food. You're going to be outside for long periods of time, in the wilderness, without any companions save your Pokémon. The mall's going to be a long ways away." He gave her a pitying look. "I can get you what you need if you're unsure of where to buy that equipment but you _need_ that stuff."

Belle stared blankly at Dante. "I what?" She was bewildered. A tent? Stuff for cooking and fires? Sleeping equipment and food? _'Out in the wilderness for long periods of time?'_ What? She didn't sign up for this! What happened to the posters of kids cheerfully frolicking alongside cute-looking Pokémon? That was what she after, not something where she'd have to actually get her hands dirty. Her! A Rutherford! Her friends back home would have her head if they even _thought _she was doing this. Oh the horror! Looking down at Celisse though she knew she didn't have much of a choice. She'd made the decision to leave home, she'd made the decision to go through with her plan. There wasn't really anyone else to blame - except maybe the people who make those posters. Yeah, she'd see about getting them fired.

Struggling with her realization, she sighed and hung her head. She was going to be so screwed in the following weeks. Somewhat reluctantly she said to Dante, "Very well. Which store do I get all this at?" She kept the part where she couldn't believe that they didn't have chefs for hire to take around with Trainers to herself. She wasn't particularly sure but she'd heard old rumors in Iclea Town that some people didn't actually have chefs, maids, butlers, servants or cleaners. It was concerning to say the least and she deeply pitied anyone who had this terrible thing befall them.

"Just follow me," Dante said, relieved that the girl seemed to understand. "You can pick up most of this from a Pokémart since they cater specifically to Trainers. We'll need to visit a supermarket as well to get you some food supplies, but you should be ready to head off to the next town in about an hour. This way," he said, taking a few steps in the indicated direction. _'Mewtwo, I'll be busy for a little while helping the girl,'_ Dante thought, still hoping that the psycat was monitoring his mental processes. _'Keep low until I come back_._'_ He didn't doubt that the cat would but it always paid to be cautious.

Belle nodded motioning for Celisse to come with them. She did so and her mistress fell into step with Dante. "Okaaay. But don't I need to challenge the Blyse Gym first? I know I definitely need to get stronger but I don't want to leave and have to come back, you know? And how am I meant to carry all this stuff? I mean, if I wanna train where am I gonna put all my stuff? On the ground? That's highly unhygienic." She shook her head. Was this how all the common folk were? Dirty? It was disgraceful, really. Besides, she'd never actually been inside a supermarket - she knew malls inside out but supermarkets? No. That was for the servants to use. Oh the things she was lowering herself to.

* * *

Elsewhere the cat gave Dante a semi-affirmative response. He wasn't going to sit around doing nothing while Dante and the newbie shopped. The girl was probably going to be very particular about what she wore no matter what the Gym Leader's advice and experience said.

_"Good luck with her Dante,"_ Mewtwo chuckled, grass flattening with invisible hands into a bed. He allowed his feline nature to take control and as soon as he was settled was napping comfortably albeit lightly. No sane Pokémon on this route would dare attack him if they didn't want to find out what the horizon looked like up close.

* * *

Dante Serven – Akai Shi-Koret

Belle Rutherford – Kat the Strange

Mewtwo – Kenocka

Written by me and my guild members on Gaia. Woot for RP to fanfic adaptations.

Author's Notes: This chapter underwent heavy editing and the others that have been uploaded anywhere online are undergoing heavy editing right now. I'm hoping that this is the last time that I have to edit this chapter. Thanks for helping me out SO MUCH Akai. This chapter wouldn't flow half as well if you hadn't stepped in and helped me out bro!


	2. Day One: Noon

Disclaimer: Anything owned by Nintendo is owned by Nintendo. Anything owned by the owners are owned by the provided owners.

Speaking Parts: _'Thoughts'_ _"Telepathy"_ "Vocalized Speech"

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I feel the need to stress that I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE for this piece of work. There are going to be MANY different writers involved with this series and it will take varying amounts of time to edit and piece together each chapter for everything to make sense. Some parts of everyone's writing may be cut out for the sake of storytelling, flow, and sensibility. Yes I may edit some parts so that they aren't so choppy ESPECIALLY if there are A LOT of mistakes. So to my co-writers PLEASE DO NOT FEEL OFFENDED if I happen to cut out a sentence or a paragraph that I feel doesn't make ANY sense in the long haul. I SPEND HOURS going over EVERYTHING just to make sure ONE SENTENCE makes sense in the overall story. If it doesn't then it's removed.

* * *

Day One: Noon

It was close to noon when Dante's familiar brain pattern reappeared on his mental radar with the city girl in tow. The cat had been right, the girl had been picky about what she needed verses what she wanted. Lazily stretching Mewtwo stood and made his way to the route proper where he met the Gym Leader and newbie a little further from the city (and therefore other Trainers) than when the day had started. He rolled his eyes at the look Dante gave him. There was no sense in hiding from someone that knew what he looked like when he was being asked not to erase her memory.

_"Had fun,"_ he asked with a smart-aleck smile.

Belle, rather pleased with her purchases, moved carefully onto the route and made sure that she didn't step in any undesired patches of grass. She was following Dante, who was laden down with the majority of her bags. Celisse tailed after the two, darting into the occasional grass patch despite the irritated looks from her Trainer. She'd been staring at her feet, dodging the grass when she heard something echoing in her head. Her bags tumbled out of her hands and her head shot up, landing on the Pokémon from before. She'd heard psychics talk to her telepathically but this was very unexpected. The Pokémon sir-ma'am-thing was a psychic! Yay! He-she-it would be able to understand her!

She promptly flew forwards wrapping her arms around his torso in a death-grip, making an excited squealing noise as she did so. "You can understaaaand meeee! Thank you for saving meeeee! Oh, you're so warm, your fur's so soft!" Belle giggled, before pretty much burying her face in his-her-its chest, relishing in the feel of it. "Mmm."

Mewtwo oomph-ed as the girl collided with his midsection and then all he could do was stand with his arms lifted away and back from his sides as she gushed about how he'd saved her, said he was warm, had soft fur, and _rubbed her head into his chest_. He couldn't just shove her away out of fear of hurting her as unused to physical contact as he was. The pleased, happy sounds she was making had him shooting glances at the top of her head and straight at Dante with a face that merged "This is awkward" and "Help strange child is attached to me like a leech!"

Dante was torn between panic and laughter at Belle's sudden comfort around Mewtwo. Laughter won out in the end though and the Gym Leader bit back sniggers at the psycat's obvious discomfort. "Belle, he doesn't like being hugged," Dante said, trying to get her away from Mewtwo. "Here, come back here and take some of this gear."

Belle turned her head when she heard Dante laughing. What? How was this amusing? The Pokémon whose name she didn't know - and therefore was called Fuzzylumpkins - was so nice, so why shouldn't she hug it? She sighed when Dante told her to let go of him. Giving Fuzzylumpkins a last, big squeeze, she let him go and walked back to the man. Celisse was standing with her back to her, glowering at the she was displeased with Belle's display of affection to a Pokémon other than herself.

Dante dumped the heavy backpack on the ground, gesturing for her to take it. "You'll need to learn how to carry this much supplies on your own. I'm not going to always be around to carry it for you." _'I hope at least,'_ he thought privately. _'And Mewtwo - this is why you should keep yourself hidden when I tell you.' _For all the Legend's supposed brilliance he seemed to have left it behind in Genesia today.

Shrugging Belle reached down and gripped the backpack, yanking it up and putting on her back with much stumbling. "Uff. So heavy." She wrinkled her nose at Dante when he made the comment that he wouldn't carry them for her. "Why not? Do you have something better to do?"

"Oh, that's simple. Because he does have better things to do than babysit a spoiled brat. Like manage a gym all the way over in Genesia," mused a voice.

Sauntering towards the trio was a Pokémon Ranger. He was just missing the hat and his outfit looked like it was custom-made, as a higher-up member of the group might have.

"Sup? How's the new batch of Trainers?" he asked.

Belle turned around and nearly lost her balance in her surprise at the new voice's sudden appearance. "Whaaat? Don't be so mean to Fuzzylumpkins! He's not spoilt!" At the newcomer's second comment, she turned back to Dante in confusion. "You manage the Genesia gym? Cool! Did you get to meet the leader? I think he's a Dragon type user."

_'It's just one surprise after another today,'_ Dante thought as he turned towards the new distraction, keeping his dismay in check. Mewtwo had been seen by yet another human, and whoever this man was had just blown Dante's cover... or at least would have, had Belle's ditzy mind managed to make the connection between him and the Genesia Gym Leader. _'That's one small comfort, at least.'_

"I've only managed to see two of them so far, but it looks like we have a solid field this time around," Dante said to the newcomer. His mouth twisted upwards in a grin but his eyes conveyed a simple message: "Mention me being a Gym Leader again and I will end you."

The girl turned back to the new guy and asked him with a cocked head, "How do you know Dante?" Instantly, her mind went to the thought that they were lovers. The way he talked to him was so loving (to here ears), as though they'd known each other forever. Perhaps they'd grown up together and a fondness for the other had also grown? N'aww they'd make such a cute couple! She wondered what the new guy's name was - then she could meld his with Dante's and make their couple name!

_'He was talking about you,'_ Mewtwo thought with some dismay. Had Belle not been so awkwardly distracting the psychic knew he'd have sensed the other human's approach and been able to disappear into the grass before he'd been seen by yet _another _person who's age and inexperience couldn't be used to his advantage. Hopefully Dante could sway this man into keeping quiet as well.

It was a bit risky for him to attempt to speak telepathically around this new man. Some humans were naturally sensitive to psychic phenomena without being psychic themselves. Dante certainly knew when Mewtwo was talking to someone after having spent so much time around the cat (a faint, fuzzy buzzing on his head) and Belle would feel a vague itch on hers since he'd actively spoken to her.

_"Dante,"_ he said to the Gym Leader privately (no need to let the newcomer know he was psychic and very much sentient in the same way as he was), _"can you convince this man to keep my existence quiet? Oh and this girl thinks you and this man are lovers."_

_'Mewtwo, just step away and find some cover, hopefully somewhere nearby,'_ Dante thought, hoping the cat would pick it up. _'Let me deal with this one.'_

Without any indication as to why he was leaving Mewtwo turned and walked off the road and into the grass. He'd wade out just far enough that no newbie Trainer would willingly follow and return when Dante gave the all clear. In retrospect if he'd listened to the Gym Leader's advice earlier he probably wouldn't be in this situation at all. The newcomer appeared to be a Ranger if his outfit was any indication, not that Mewtwo really knew much about the organization, so he wouldn't bother him for just walking off. The Ranger might be curious as to why a wild Pokémon was hanging around humans willingly but it wasn't the most uncommon occurrence either.

_"Have fun with your lover and babysitting the girl,"_ Mewtwo chuckled over his shoulder directly into Dante's head. The Gym Leader hadn't reacted the first time around but some playful teasing might just change that.

_'I don't even _know _him,'_ Dante thought after the cat in protest as he disappeared into the grasses. Really, that Belle had the strangest notions. Dante supposed it had something to do with growing up in a secluded town but never having been to Iclea himself, all the Gym Leader could do was guess. _'Besides, you'd know as well as I do that I'm not gay.' _He snorted in annoyance.

Belle tilted her head as Dante spoke to his boyfriend. Frankly she didn't really understand whether his comment about the Trainers was good or bad, so she took her usual stance on things like this - she took it as a compliment. She was pleased when she saw him grin at the guy - how cuuute! Such a cute couple! She was confused as to why he felt the need to act as though he didn't know him though. She was no homophobe, she had no problem with him having a boyfriend.

Movement caught her eye, and she saw that Fuzzylumpkins was leaving. No! Glancing back at Dante, she put a light hand on his shoulder and cheerfully said, "I'll leave you and your boyfriend to it! I'm going to go be with Fuzzlumpkins!" That done, she hurried after the Pokémon, feeling a faint tingling at the back of her head. What? Oh, right. "Celisse, baby! Come on!" Somewhat grudgingly, the Charmander trailed after his Trainer as she caught up with the other Pokémon. She was rather uncomfortable at being so deep in the tall grass but she'd follow Fuzzylumpkins anywhere.

"Fuzzylumpkins, where are you going? Don't you want to be with Dante and his boyfriend?"

* * *

Wow. The girl was clearly an idiot if she didn't catch on to that little slip. There went whatever hope he had of the new crop. But Dante had said there was a solid field this time despite having only seen two of the newcomers, so maybe there was some potential. Or maybe the Gym Leader liked having such a sorry lot to watch grow and develop. "I see. Well, best of luck to them taking on the League Challenge!" he said cheerfully.

The cat-like Pokémon wandered off and the girl mentioned something about a "boyfriend" before going after "Fuzzylumpkins." Something was seriously wrong with that girl's head. It was only the leader left now. The Ranger looked at the man's hand before taking it for a firm handshake.

"And you are?" asked Dante. He hadn't seen the man before, at least not as far as he could remember.

"Lukas. I usually stay around the Ranger HQ doing paperwork and overseeing the recruit training so it's rare for me to venture out this far. I heard there was a new batch of Trainers coming here so I figured I'm come check them out and properly educate them on the potential dangers of going out into the wilderness unprepared but if you're around looking over them then that saves me some time. Hopefully we'll have fewer casualties this year from under-preparation. Nice to meet you." The Ranger said with a casual smile before he pulled his hand back.

It was a pretty solid lie that didn't have any loopholes (that he knew of at least), so hopefully Dante would buy it.

"Nice to meet you as well, Lukas," Dante replied as he let go of the man's hand. "I actually think I've got this area covered though, and I'm sure we've got a few more Trainers on the other side of the route who are getting started. I'm sure they'll need instruction too." _'Especially if they're anything like Belle,'_ he thought privately. The Gym Leader hoped that the Ranger would leave without any further discussion - he would spend perhaps another hour here with Belle to make sure she wasn't completely incompetent with wilderness survival and then collect Mewtwo and take off for Genesia. He had no wish to stay here any longer than absolutely necessary, especially not when the psycat had _already _been seen by no less than two other humans and his own cover had been blown.

The lie worked. What a surprise. Well, that was fine. He _had_ attended a Ranger Academy long enough to know most of the important stuff. Dante had said there were other Trainers further along the route, so he'd make sure to swing by to check them out.

"I'll go check out the other Trainers then," he said. He started to walk away but then turned to look back at Dante. "That girl never called back her Charmander when she chased after that purple cat, did she? I don't think it's rained here for a while, so I can only hope she doesn't accidentally start a fire with that tail flame. I'm only scouting today so I didn't bring a Water type to put out any fires. If there's any casualties or damage to nature I'll be sure to send the bills to you since you yourself said you have this area under control."

With that warning, the Ranger left.

Around the same time, the Litwick that he'd let out and commanded to use Minimize before going to speak with Dante, the cat, and Belle had remained invisible with its ghostly powers before following the girl and her Charmander into the tall grass while keeping a distance. She had then used her flame to light the tall grass on fire before sinking into the ground with her ghost properties and following after her Trainer. As the fire was within the tall grass near the girl and cat rather than on the outer edge it would look like the Charmander had started the fire. Wickersham could have been noticed by the psychic but he was probably too busy being flustered with the newbie to have noticed the tiny candle ghost do the deed. Since he had already left the area not only could he _not _be held responsible for the fire but it would be extremely difficult to trace the source back to him.

After all, there was no Ranger Lukas.

* * *

Mewtwo had moved fairly quickly for someone unused to making his way on foot. The grass he was in now was taller than he was and he slowed his pace to cautiously listen for other Pokémon that might have been wandering nearby. He wasn't in any danger if he was on guard and he was far enough away from the road that Trainers wouldn't bother him unless they were purposely moving further afield. The sounds of something crashing through the grass behind him had the psychic turning to find the same girl from before. She was entirely too loud to be wandering in territory humans avoided unless they had big guns or bigger Pokémon.

_"Return your Charmander to her Pokéball before everything goes up in a blaze,"_ Mewtwo said quickly once he realized he was being followed. Was the girl really this ditzy or was she thick? Didn't she know that her Charmander had an open flame on her tail at all times? If the fields outside Blyse didn't go up in massively uncontrollable flames then the cat would be stunned stupid. _"Go back to the route before something worse than a Shinx tries to eat you."_

Belle jumped again when she heard Fuzzylumpkins's voice echoing through her head again. Ooh exotic! She glanced down at Celisse who was intelligently working to move her tail away from the grass. Smiling she reached down and picked up her Pokémon attempting to keep her balance with the bag on her back. Belle shook her head, grinning at him. "No, Fuzzylumpkins! I'm not going to leave you, you poor, lonely baby." She reached out with her free hand and patted his arm sympathetically, cooing, "Does the big baby need some looove? How about some cake? Do you want some cake, baby?"

_"Please don't call me that,"_ Mewtwo said with equal parts politeness and embarrassment while stepping once out of Belle's reach. The Trainer was entirely too familiar with him and he was not entirely comfortable with that. She wasn't trying to make him feel so awkward on purpose so he could forgive her slightly. That combined with her inexperience with proper mannerisms concerning wild Pokémon was the only reason he hadn't taken flight. If her earlier experience hadn't taught her anything then she wouldn't last long.

Belle blinked at Fuzzylumpkins in confusion. "Call you whaaat? Fuzzylumpkins? That's your name, you silly banana." Her hand dropped somewhat uselessly when he moved away.

Almost out of nowhere Celisse made a hissing noise, leaping out of Belle's arms and landing on the ground, growling and something she couldn't see. "What? What is it? What - aaaah!" Something pink and white shot out of the grass, slamming into Celisse and knocking her onto her back. Belle's Pokémon though, was having none of this. As she watched, little bolts of orange shot from her Charmander's mouth, knocking back the Skitty. Celisse stood up again, glowering at the other Pokémon. "Uhm. Okay. Do what you just did again." The Charmander obeyed, spraying the Skitty with her little balls of fire to keep it at bay. "Yay! Keep it up!" The Skitty, unable to close in, quickly retreated back to the grass limping.

"Yay! There's a good precious! Oh, you're hurt! Here." Belle dug around in her bag, producing a Potion. Celisse held out her arm and she sprayed it, watching the wound begin to heal. "Good baby girl!"

The girl's Charmander's eagerness to hurt other creatures was disturbing. Were all starters bred to be so violent towards other Pokémon until they were absorbed into the team or driven away?

_"If you're going to allow your Charmander to attack other Pokémon then at least capture them,"_ Mewtwo admonished with a frown. _"Don't let them wander off injured. They'll be targeted for a weakness_ you _caused."_

He advocated survival of the fittest but too often he'd come across wild Pokémon that had come off worse for wear because Trainers didn't realize that sending their team at anything they didn't intend to add to their ranks because of the "experience" that would be gained was upsetting the delicate balance nature had in place. Wild Pokémon only tried to kill one another when they were hungry, in danger, or when their young were in danger.

"Now, there's no need to be afraid, sugar. I'm only here to help you! And that Skitty attacked us! It was _hardly _our fault! Isn't that right Celisse?" The Charmander made an affirmative noise, trotting over to Mewtwo and sniffing his leg deeply. After a moment, she bared her teeth and slashed at his leg.

"No! No, bad girl Come here, dearest!" She moved over to it, picking the Pokémon up again. "You are so naughty!" Belle tapped her Charmander on the nose, rolling her eyes as she wriggled free again. Celisse, tail up and head to the ground, was apparently now off sniffing something. "So, Fuzzylumpkins, how did you come to meet Dante?"

_"My name is Mewtwo. You need to read the handbook included in your Pokédex on how to properly train your Charmander,"_ Mewtwo said while narrowing his eyes at the fire lizard. He privately warned the little upstart that if she attempted violence against him again he'd essentially Tail Whip her back to the route regardless of whether or not he could perform it properly; if he was injured somehow then it would still be worth it. _"She's already training you to believe that she's the alpha of your relationship. I suggest you let her know differently before you go any further. As a Charizard she's going to be difficult and should she decide that she doesn't like something you've done she'll react like an alpha and put you back in your place. For you that would mean hospitalization if she doesn't accidentally kill you in the process."_

Belle tilted her head at him stating his name, repeating it slowly. "Mew...two?" Like the second Mew? No, surely not, she was being silly. She knew, of course, of Mew the Legendary Pokémon. Perhaps his name was Miato, but he pronounced oddly? Yes, that must be it. Miato. "Ooh, I don't even know how to use this." She pulled out her Pokédex, pushing random buttons at will. "I know how to look at stuff like moves or abilities and show what Pokémon it is but I didn't know there was _handbook _involved. Miato's next comments, though, confused her. "Whaaat? What do you mean? You'd never hurt me, right, baby?" Celisse, though, was rather uninterested in this conversation. She was sniffing around at the grass, growling at something.

A squawking noise interrupted Mewtwo's scolding and drew Belle's attention back to Celisse, who had clamped her jaws on to a Pidgey's wing. "Arceus! Celisse release! Releeeease!" She reached down at yanked at her Pokémon, pulling it away from the victimized Pidgey. "You really shouldn't - FFF- Tackle!" The Pidgey had launched itself at Celisse, who promptly threw herself into the fray, baring her teeth. "Uhm do that thing you did before!"

Celisse, momentarily befuddled by this command, allowed the Pidgey time to smack her again, enraging the Charmander. Celisse opened her mouth, letting out the stream of red bolts again. "Yay! Keep it up, shnookums!" The stream increased, with one particular bolt hitting the poor bugger on the head, apparently knocking it out. "Uh stop now, please! I think it's unconscious."

Mewtwo might have continued lecturing the girl had the wind not shifted direction and sent smoke wafting directly into his nose. Calmly the cat sniffed the air, absently noting the Charmander did the same. At least he wasn't the only one who smelled the burning grasses. The Charmander jumped back and that's when her Trainer saw the flames. Belle let out a high-pitched shriek and stumbled backwards.

_"I told you that having a Fire type out in grass this high was dangerous,"_ Mewtwo said with some irritation coloring his tone. He couldn't take flight and take Belle and her upstart starter with him without being seen by every Trainer on the route. They would have to walk and be careful that they didn't run across brush-fire in the process.

"Celisse, what did you do?" The Charmander whipped around, snarling at her, clearly not pleased with her accusation. "What?" she demanded. "Don't give me any 'tude, girl, there are no other Fire types around. I - " she broke off upon seeing them surrounded by a blue glow, attention drawn back to Miato.

_"Let's head back to the road."_ To prevent any damage from happening a blue glow emanated from the psychic's eyes and appeared around the three of them before flickering out of sight. Barrier only raised defense so if they _had_ to run through fire they could but standing in it was out of the question.

Dante would gripe at him if he left the girl to a fiery end and she honestly didn't deserve such a death to begin with. Her innocence proved that much.

"Eh okay. Come on, sweetie. We can discuss this later, we don't want you getting - _get your nose out of the fire!_" Celisse sneezed, moving away from the flames. "Arceus, you're insane. Look, you got black stuff on your nose!" She reached down and snatched up her Pokémon, moving back towards Dante and his boyfriend, trying to hold down the Charmander, despite its struggling.

"Oh, right. Arceus, Celisse, if you don't stop struggling I will put you in your Pokéball." The Charmander stopped its wriggling, looking rather irritated. "There's a good baby girl." She picked her way carefully through the grass, still moving at a somewhat speedy pace. "OhmiArceus, it's _totes _hot. Who knew fire could reach this temperature?" she mused. Celisse's tail flame wasn't really helping the situation.

* * *

Dante watched Lukas's retreating back until the Ranger disappeared into the grass on the other side of the route from Mewtwo. _'Thank Arceus that's over with,'_ he thought, sighing as his body relaxed. The Gym Leader had made up his mind to leave the route _now_ before someone else showed up and sidetracked him into another conversation. He might come back later, once Mewtwo was safely ensconced in his flat in Genesia, but as of now there was too much of a danger that people would see - and recognize - Mewtwo.

As he scanned the grassy field that the Legendary had disappeared into, Dante caught a glimpse of a small smoke column. _'Looks like that Charmander learned Ember already then,'_ he thought, with a little apprehension. Hopefully Belle had the good sense to not burn down the route.

_'Mewtwo? Where are you?'_ Dante thought, readying Venezia's Pokéball. _'I got the Ranger to head off, let's make a break for it while we can.'_

_"If only Route 1 wasn't_ on fire_," _Mewtwo said with a hint of urgency. The fire was spreading quickly and the psycat was about to damn secrecy and its conveniences if it meant escaping the horrendous amount of heat. He made sure to keep the girl near. No doubt she would panic if she lost sight of him and that wouldn't do her or her team any good.

Locking on to Dante's brain helped with finding their way back to the road and when the small, sweat and soot soaked group arrived they panted and it was to smoke-stained air. Dante stood a little further down the road from them.

_'I might have panicked a little in my haste to get clear of the grass,'_ thought the cat. That was the only explanation for why they weren't gasping for fresh air in front of the Gym Leader.

Looking up, she saw Dante a little ahead of them. She put her Pokémon back down again, frowning when she saw her arm. "Really? Soot? FFF-" Grimacing, she rubbed her arm vigorously - thankfully, it had only just gotten on there, so it wasn't sticking on.

"Okay. Celisse, come back here. We need to discuss you setting the damn route on fire." The Pokémon had wandered off, sniffing at the grass again. "I swear, if you find another Arceus-dammed wild Pokémon -" Naturally something was now flying at her. After a moment, Belle could see that it was a Pidove. Celisse, apparently untouched by the creature, wheeled backwards. It took her a few seconds to realize that the Pidove had used Gust. "Alright, Celisse, use Ember!"

Regaining her balance the Charmander shot her little red bolts at the Pidove. The other Pokémon, wings flapping, moved backwards before sending another bout of wind at Celisse. "Don't be fazed! Just keep firing 'em!" This went on for a few minutes, as neither of them needed to close in, and could fire from a distance. "FFF- Just, uhm, use Scratch! Well, no, don't go in the way of the Gust, move around it - girl, use your _speed__!_" After a few tries, Celisse managed to dodge around one of the other Pokémon's attacks, slashing at it with her glowing claws. The Pidove shuddered, before collapsing.

Celisse looked back at her Trainer, rather pleased with herself. "Yaaay! There's my precious! Come here, I've got a Potion for you!" The Charmander hurried over, baring its fangs in a smile when it was sprayed. "Gooooood girl."

Mewtwo dodged away from the ensuing battle with the Pidove. The thing was frightened because of the fire and was probably only attacking because of that. It didn't change the cat's opinion that the newbie Trainer had the worst kind of luck. He skirted the battle and made his way over to Dante. The man was worriedly looking over the grasslands and the rising columns of smoke. He didn't really know what to say or if there was anything _to_say about the current situation. It wasn't anyone's fault that the grass had been unnaturally dry.

* * *

Dante Serven – Akai Shi-Koret

Belle Rutherford – Kat the Strange

Mewtwo – Kenocka

Mysterious Man – gabriel sama

Written by me and my guild members on Gaia. Woot for RP to fanfic adaptations.

Special thanks to Akai for going over this and making it awesome!


	3. Day One: Afternoon

Disclaimer: Anything owned by Nintendo is owned by Nintendo. Anything owned by the owners are owned by the provided owners.

Speaking Parts: _'Thoughts' "Telepathy"_ "Vocalized Speech"

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE**: I feel the need to stress that I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE for this piece of work. There are going to be MANY different writers involved with this series and it will take varying amounts of time to edit and piece together each chapter for everything to make sense. Some parts of everyone's writing may be cut out for the sake of storytelling, flow, and sensibility. Yes I may edit some parts so that they aren't so choppy ESPECIALLY if there are A LOT of mistakes. So to my co-writers PLEASE DO NOT FEEL OFFENDED if I happen to cut out a sentence or a paragraph that I feel doesn't make ANY sense in the long haul. I SPEND HOURS going over EVERYTHING just to make sure ONE SENTENCE makes sense in the overall story. If it doesn't then it's removed.

* * *

Day One: Afternoon

Dante dithered momentarily, debating on what to do with the information that Mewtwo had offered. He had no way of knowing if the fire was intentionally set, if the Charmander had caused it, or if it was a natural brushfire but decided in an instant that it was probably a bad thing for the route to be ablaze. His hand replaced Venezia's ball with Poseidon's and in an instant the Kingdra was bouncing by his side, awaiting orders. "Let's give it a Rain Dance, 'Seidon," Dante said. With any luck the downpour would finish off the fire before it could spread too far. "This girl has all the worst luck, huh Mewtwo?" he said to his feline companion as Poseidon began the dance, gathering storm clouds overhead. "Good thing you were there. What caused it?"

_"It would seem to be that way. She also doesn't seem to know how to properly command her Charmander either. The creature is far too willful and the girl is far too permissive."_ Mewtwo levitated slightly in preparation for the coming storm (wet feet were not fun) and threw a Barrier above himself and as an afterthought the Gym Leader as well.  
_  
"I would say that it was the Charmander's tail flame in addition to the dry conditions the area seems to have been experiencing is the cause,"_ responded the psycat. The explanation made sense but it didn't ring true. _"However the Charmander did appear to be keeping her tail flame under control and away from the grass. I don't believe that the fire was caused by the Trainer's starter on purpose if at all. The extra heat from the open flame might have been the catalyst but it was bound to happen without rainfall."_

With a shrug the psychic continued speaking in the same even tone. _"It could have easily been started by an Electric type using Spark or another attack of that element. In the end the blaze isn't anyone's fault. It was only a matter of time."_

"Mm, you're probably right," Dante said as the rain poured down, causing gouts of smoke to issue from the small blaze. He shook himself mentally. The day's events must have gotten him paranoid if he was looking for an arsonist behind a simple brushfire. "I'd let it burn, but it's the first day for the newbies and would just be one more hazard." He signaled to Poseidon as the brief downpour began to taper off. "Go check the remains, make sure there are no hot spots." The Kingdra nodded, floating off over the grass towards the still-steaming section.

Dante sighed as he glanced back towards Belle, who was huddled under her umbrella as though the rain was acidic. "She really needs to go to a Trainer school, that one," he said to Mewtwo. "There's no way she's ready for the circuit, not like she is now and especially not with a Charmander." Those lizards could be ridiculously hard for even seasoned Trainers to deal with, and Belle was quite possibly the least prepared youngster he'd ever seen. For a second the Gym Leader toyed with the idea of taking her under his wing, just for the first few towns, but dispelled the notion. He and Mewtwo needed to be gone before more new Trainers arrived.

Mewtwo caught onto Dante's thoughts as they trailed off. _"Perhaps you_ should _travel with her. The Trainers from last year have either given up or moved on to new regions. You're the eighth Gym Leader so no one will be around to challenge you for quite some time. It would behoove the girl to have you along as a guide."_

The cat's eyes widened into the horizon as soon as the words left his telepathic mouth. He quickly straightened his features into careful nonchalance. No need for the human to think he'd come to care for a simple Trainer's welfare after all. Even if the girl was hopelessly inept and needed someone to shadow her for her own safety.

Quickly trying to cover for his earlier slip Mewtwo tacked on, _"Besides with you taking charge of this area leaving the girl alone while she's so inexperienced would reflect badly on you,"_ in a flat, fact-like manner complete with a shrug that was supposed to mean he didn't care either way what the man did.

Dante snorted a little at Mewtwo's tacked-on addition. He gave the cat a wry smile and a sideways look that told the Legendary all he needed to know. The cat could try to be sly about it, but they'd been together for far too long and Dante had gotten the hang of reading his body language. "I guess I'll stick around for a little bit then," he said nonchalantly. "Maybe for the first gym or so. But obviously we're going to need to get you home before someone sees you out here."

Before the psycat could respond though, Belle reappeared from the grass, making a beeline for the Pokémon Center with a pair of new Pokéballs clutched to her chest. "Looks like she'll be in shape for the Gym Challenge before too long," the Gym Leader remarked. "Wonder what else she found out there?" He knew from experience how diverse Route 1's Pokémon population could be.

_"I am capable of keeping myself out of the eyesight of humans. Today was a fluke. It will not happen again,_" stated the cat with a friendly coolness and smile. _"I can't go back to your gym while you travel either. Your Hydreigon still wants to eat me after all._" _  
_  
Throwing his senses to the Pokéballs Mewtwo responded with, _"A Ralts and an Eevee are her latest additions to her team. I hope that she's not one of those Trainers that mindlessly captures all Pokémon they come across."_

'_I wouldn't worry about that,'_ Dante replied mentally to Mewtwo. _'__She should have had a Pidgey and a Rattata by now if she was such a Trainer_._'_ Those things were everywhere.

* * *

Belle tilted her head when Dante pulled out a Pokéball, releasing a blue seahorse thing. She waved her Pokédex at it, curious as to what it might be. The little device whirled to life, declaring, "Kingdra, the Dragon Pokémon. It sleeps deep on the ocean floor to build its energy. It is said to cause tornadoes and whirlpools as it moves and wakes." Belle shrugged, putting the Pokédex away again. "Cool! Did you catch it underwater or something?" She ignored the comments about her luck - in her opinion, luck could be bought, and she was fine with that. She stared upwards at the clouds, dimly realizing what 'Rain Dance' meant. Great. She instantly began to scrabble through the bag she had just dropped, quickly producing a large umbrella. She put it up, holding it above herself as she heard the first few pitter-patters of the rain. "Really? Could you not just use something like Water Gun? Oh, Celisse, come here, girl. We don't want that tail flame of yours going out."

The Charmander obediently trotted over, coming under the protection of the umbrella although her eyes were fixed on something in the grass. After a moment the same Skitty from before, still somewhat injured, flopped out of the grass, lying on its belly and attempting to drink the falling rain. Well. At least _someone _was enjoying the weather.

She felt the same faint tingling from before in the back of her mind and huffed. Arceus, that was annoying. Perhaps it was a brain tumor? She must get this checked out because she was pretty sure that brain tumors were not good. She relaxed a bit as she heard the rain die down but refused to put her umbrella down until it stopped completely. The Kingdra left, apparently to go and inspect the area, and she cautiously put the object down, shaking it out before she put it back in her bag. "Uff. That was not fun."

A rustling to her left drew her attention to a slightly damp Pidgey who shot out of the bushes and nearly knocked her over. "FFF- That was not polite! You could have _hit _me!" she screamed after it even as it flew away. She huffed and looked at Celisse, who was now staring with interest at her own tail. "You are not a cat dearest. You are a Charmander. Charmanders do not chase their tails." The Pokémon looked up somewhat sullenly and plopped herself down on the ground in obvious frustration. "Hush, sugar. You know you're dignified you just need to _show _it."

Belle turned around to talk to Dante and Miato again – she thought it would be best to let Celisse have a bit of a rest at the Pokémon Center and was curious to see if they would want to come, too – when she heard the Charmander snarl. Whirling around the girl saw that Celisse had been intelligent enough to stick her sooty nose into what appeared to be the middle of a rather ferocious battle. Fantastic. Upon closer inspection she saw that a pack of five Skitties were circling around a pair of Rattata who looked defensive and none too pleased. One particular Skitty seemed to now notice the voyeuristic Charmander and pounced. Celisse didn't bother to wait for a command as she fired off Ember to keep the thing at bay. This naturally attracted the attention of the other Skitties who lined up in a rather menacing manner, all glowering at Belle's Pokémon. The Rattatas were pleased by this interruption and skittered off. Meanwhile Celisse was a tad apprehensive about how to handle a five on one battle and was now awaiting a command. "Uh just use Ember on all of them. You're kind of stronger now so you should have a bit of an advantage?"

Celisse looked a little surprised at this plan but followed the order anyway. She began firing the projectiles again, moving her head from side to side to get all the other Pokémon. The Skitties didn't like this for they all began to launch themselves in Tackle attacks at the poor Charmander. "Aaah! Dodge! Run! Jump!" Rather confused at this Celisse somehow managed to use her superior speed to her advantage before Belle snatched her up again. The Skitties then took it upon themselves to go after Belle. Steeling herself the Trainer focused on one of them and as it approached she drew back her leg and gave it a swift kick, punting it a good five meters. The others stopped, slightly shocked at what happened to their fellow. "Humph. That's right, _bitches._Lay off my Celisse." They seemed to gather that they too would be kicked upon getting close and were content to go and help their friend before slinking off. She set her Pokémon down again, noting the weird look it gave her. She shrugged. "We used to play soccer in Iclea when we were young. I always had a good kick."

The Charmander nodded, turning and watching another patch of grass intently before lunging onto it. A surprised squeak sounded and Celisse emerged gripping something white and green in her claws despite the creature's intense struggles. "Oh, Celisse. Stop it. Leave the poor thing alone." The Pokémon continued to stare at her before she realized what it wanted her to do. "Ohhh! Here, hold up." She dug around, producing a Pokéball, before lobbing it at the little creature. It wriggled out of Celisse's arms and vanished back into its patch of grass before the Pokéball could reach it. "Well, damn." She walked over and picked up the item, sighing. "I need to catch more Pokémon, eh? How is it you know more about Pokémon training than I do? Was it because you were in Valerian's Lab for so long? Did you hear her talking about what was required?" If the Charmander heard her Trainer she gave no sign of it. Belle sighed. This was _so_frustrating.

"Look, we need to get you to the –" she broke off when Celisse launched herself at yet another patch of grass, tumbling out with a brown and white fox who did not look all that happy with this arrangement. "Okaaay! Tackle it! Well, when you've let it go - yes, now Tackle! Good! Erm... Ember! One more Tackle? Ah, just brush that off, you'll be fine." As she spoke she produced a couple more Pokéballs, ready to lob them at the creature. When she deemed it weak enough (as in, it was stumbling around looking intoxicated) she threw three of them at the Pokémon. The first missed by a mile (she needed to work on her aim) but the second hit it, and a moment later red light beamed from it and the Pokémon was sucked inside. The button in the center of the Pokéball flashed red, and she knew that she'd caught the little thing. "Yaaaaaaaay!" she cheered. "A new friend! Good job, shnookums!" She hugged her Charmander, careful of the tail flame, before sitting back.

"Alright, babe. Now, we just need to go to the Pokémon Center to heal you guys up, alright?" Celisse nodded, pleased with her work. They started back to Dante and Miato when something ran across Belle's path, prompting her to fall flat on her face and squash whatever it was. "Ow." Squeaking sounded from under her and she realized that she was lying on the poor thing. She pushed herself up and saw that it was the same Pokémon from before – or at least one of the same species. It got itself up, glancing at her in a frightened manner, before attempting to hurry off again. "Nooo! You're too cute to leave!" She threw one of her other Pokéballs, completely forgetting about attempting to weaken it, and crossed her fingers in desperation. The item hit, knocking the poor thing over again and capturing it. "Yaaay! This is so _productive!_But seriously, we need to get the Pokémon Center." She picked up the Pokéball after dusting herself off from her fall. Then, she picked up Celisse and hurried to where Dante and Miato were. "I'll be back in a few! I caught two new Pokémon!" Her grin pretty much said it all and she had to restrain from skipping back to Blyse City.

Once in the city she rushed over to the Center, turned in her Pokéballs and waited. After a half hour she was given the all clear and sat down with her Pokémon in the Center's lobby. She let all three of them out (not counting Celisse, who was already out) and smiled as they looked around, intrigued by their surroundings. "Weeelp, hi! I'm Belle, and I'll be your Trainer for a while. She waved her Pokédex at the new pair of Pokémon she caught, listening to the explanations she was given.

"Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. A rare Pokémon that adapts to harsh environments by taking on different evolutionary forms. Because its genetic makeup is irregular, it quickly changes its form due to a variety of causes. Ralts, the Feeling Pokémon. It uses the horns on its head to sense human emotions. It is said to appear in front of cheerful people. If its horns capture the warm feelings of people or Pokémon, its body warms up slightly."

"Well. Hi, there. Hmm Eevee, you can be Lily, and Ralts, you can be Gabrielle. Alright?" They seemed to nod somewhat uneasily but she paid that no mind. "Okay. Well, I can hardly have you all out running around, can I? Perhaps when you're stronger, but I don't want you all getting to hurt, okay? Okay." She pulled out their respective Pokéballs, returning all but Celisse. "Okay, sweetie. Back to the route, now." The Charmander followed her out as she moved through the streets, looking somewhat bored. She quickly approached the route again and found Miato and Dante still there. She and her Pokémon hurried over to them once more, excitement evident on her face. "Teehee! I have new friends now!"

_"The Ralts will be keep you alive at the very least if no one else is around to do so. They're protective of the Trainers they bond with, especially if they evolve into Gardevoir,"_Mewtwo said to Belle as she approached.

Belle puffed as she stood next to Dante and Miato, jumping again when she heard Miato's voice echoing through her mind. She smiled pleasantly down at the Pokéball on her waist. "Oooh, really? That's awesome, Gabrielle." She looked back up at the pair, asking Dante with interest, "So, how was your boyfriend?"

"He's not my boyfriend," Dante replied firmly. Really, the girl had such strange notions about people. _'Probably because she never got out enough as a kid_,' he thought privately. Taking her on as an apprentice of sorts was seemingly like an increasingly bad idea. Still though, nothing she'd done or said was a deal-breaker yet and clearly she could use the assistance. "Looks like you've got a few new friends though," he said, attempting to change the subject. "Let's get you training while the sun's still up. By tomorrow you might be able to challenge the Blyse City Gym Leader, if you're dedicated." Though not every Trainer had the gyms in their sights Dante had found that most of them took on the very first one. He assumed that Belle was no different, though given her oddities and personality quirks Dante didn't know what to expect.

Belle blinked in confusion. "He's nooot? But you looked so cute together." She shook her head. "That's such a shame." She returned her attention to her Pokéballs when he mentioned them. "Yup! Okay. But challenge the Gym Leader? Oooh, not just yet, I think they're scary. I don't want them to kill my babies." She reached down and petted Celisse's head, smacking her nose when she tried to bite her hand. Personally the real reason she was after collecting the Gym badges, despite the somewhat cliché reasoning behind it, was so that her father would hopefully see that as a sign of independence and responsibility and not ship her off to be married to someone she didn't know.

'_I will be erasing my existence from the minds of those that see me from now on,'_the cat thought coldly. The human that called himself a Ranger would be found soon enough. Only the girl and Dante would remain the exceptions to this rule. No one else deserved such consideration. The cat chose not to let Dante's thoughts about him softening up towards Trainers affect him otherwise. The Gym Leader could ill afford to lose his license because of carelessness concerning a Trainer that had just started out. He was looking out for himself in the long run.

Mewtwo's comment about the mind wipes though gave Dante a deep sense of unease. He wasn't entirely comfortable with the cat carelessly waltzing into to the minds of others and deleting whatever he wanted, regardless of its effectiveness at keeping his identity a secret. Still though, the Gym Leader said nothing - Mewtwo should pick up on his emotions.

The cat nearly wrenched his head off his neck with how quickly he jerked it to look at the Gym Leader. The man's feelings had responded to his thoughts. The things that only he was supposed to be privy to!

_"How did you know what I was thinking?"_Was the man developing telepathy from being around him so much? Mewtwo had heard stories of humans with no psychic abilities developing them after spending enough time around sufficiently powerful or many weaker psychics. Was that happening to Dante?

Belle caught Miato turning and looking at Dante somewhat angrily, the tingling in the back of her head returning. She resisted the urge to hit herself in the head. "What is it?" she asked curiously.

Mewtwo almost responded but then his psychic senses kicked in and alerted him that someone else was approaching the small group. The male, a young boy, was still far enough away that he couldn't see the psycat but that made no difference to the psychic. He darted off as a sooty gray and purple blur to the side of Route 1's grass that hadn't been burned by the sudden fire and moved far off the road to hide among the tall grass.

From his hiding place, ducked down and mental faculties fully alert and extended Mewtwo spoke again. _"I will follow you as soon as the boy leaves."_

Belle stared blankly when Miato bolted away, hiding in the grass. "Quite the ninja," she mused. She forced herself not to jump again when she heard his voice ringing through her head. She gave Dante a questioning look. "Does he do this a lot? He seems rather jumpy." She turned when she heard a bird squawking, fearing another attack. Another little boy was standing with a blue reptile. It looked somewhat like a crocodile. Interesting. As she watched, the Pidgey attacked the blue thing, which sent it backwards with some sort of water attack. That was odd. Two out of two new Trainers she'd met today had chosen Water types. She turned back to Celisse, who was getting riled up with the fight, eager to join in. "No, baby." She picked her up and cuddled her, despite the Charmander not even paying attention to her. "You are too violent, silly."

"You're going to need to train that Charmander to listen to you, first of all," Dante said to Belle, ignoring the new arrival for a moment. "A lot of Trainers have been let down in battles when their Charmander decided to ignore their orders and do what it wanted. Once that thing becomes a Charizard, it'll be impossible to control unless you trained it to obey you early on." He'd seen quite a few new Trainers make that same mistake and always made sure he was present at Addobe's Gym for their battles. By that point their Charizards were sure to ignore their Trainer's orders in the most spectacular ways possible – he'd seen one that refused to exit its Pokéball, while another went to sleep even as it received a punishing rain of blows from the Gym Leader's Pokémon just to spite its red-faced owner. Belle likely wouldn't survive with an untrained Charizard on her team and unless Dante impressed that on her early he may even have to take her Pokémon lest she get injured.

As an aside, Dante issued an affirmative to Mewtwo as the psycat dove for cover. He still thought that the Legendary should be heading back to Genesia, but since he didn't technically own the Pokémon all he could do is offer advice. It wasn't his problem if Mewtwo had to hide himself every five minutes or so.

And speaking of the reason for hiding, Dante wasn't at all surprised to find yet another newbie Trainer on the route. The boy's Totodile was locked in combat with a wild Pidgey which gave the Gym Leader a chance to assess the newbie's skills. It wasn't a particularly graceful battle, and Dante spotted a handful of flaws in the kid's technique but overall it was passably good. At the very least he was better than Belle though given the poor girl's history he couldn't really fault her lack of knowledge - nor the boy really. It was typical for the newbie Trainers to make rookie mistakes. Dante's first instinct was to coach the new Trainer and give him advice but then he remembered the hidden feline and stayed his shout. He wasn't going to turn the kid away if he asked but he wasn't going to attract undue attention to this section of the route.

* * *

Chael walked out one of the burned bushes and looked around. The source of that fire must have been around here somewhere. He had only a Totodile by his side as he had returned the others as he trekked across the burned and then soaked foliage. As he was looking around he spotted an Ace Trainer by his bearing giving another Trainer, a girl, advice or something. Another newbie? He had met three others the day before and an Elite Four but he had more respect for the newer Trainers.

He approached them with left arm in his pocket and ready to send out another Pokémon if he needed to defend himself just a precaution. The eleven-year-old decided no mistakes were better than one. A Pidgey approached him and his Totodile. It was one of the ones they had fought the day previous and it was livid. Argos stepped up to defend his Trainer, growling hungrily: a warning to back off that was declined. Flying over it pecked the crocodile's side and it was blown away with a quick Water Gun. And the match began.

The Pidgey flew back and swooped once more at the gator. "When I say go sidestep and use Bite." Chael said as the bird neared. A sweat went down the Totodile's back, fearing he'd be hit. But he stand firm for his Trainer. Just as the bird was upon them Chael shouted "Now!" Argos stepped to the left and spun as the bird whizzed past him. Following through with the commands he took hold of the Pidgey with his jaws, as a Bite. Using its momentum, he spun and threw the bird into a bush.

The bird hopped out, chirping angrily. "Hey, you initiated the battle." Chael said in response "So no complaining. Fly away if you're afraid of getting anymore hurt." Obviously this damaged the bird's pride. Chirping loudly the bird flew away. Bushes nearby shook. Wait - oh.

A Shinx, Bidoof, and Sentret walked out of the bushes, at Chael. Quickly, he took out two more Pokéballs and sent out an Eevee and a Timburr. Three on three? Challenge accepted. The Shinx's cheeks sparked energy as he ran at Argos while the Sentret and Bidoof rushed Bruce. "Tsuki, distract that Shinx. Bruce, use Bide, and Argos cover Tsuki with Water Gun." he ordered.

The Eevee named Tsuki put his paw in the sand and flung some at the Shinx's eyes. Argos had time to step back as the Shinx tripped and shot a Water Gun at it. Now it was one wet kitten. The Bidoof and Sentret used Tackle and rammed into the fighting type, but he held his ground.

The Shinx rammed into Tsuki, knocking him back. Argos growled and attacked without command, biting the Shinx and lifted it off the ground and threw it with his jaws. Getting Paralyzed in the process. After the recent beatings Bruce shouted and energy burst outward from him, flinging the Bidoof and Sentret back. They had dealt quite a bit of damage and received twice as much.

Now the Shinx was left and Chael was forced to return Argos. For being a Water type he was quite a hothead. Like a certain Charmander. The Shinx Tackled Tsuki and soon the two were in a lock. "Push him out Tsuki! Towards Bruce. And Bruce prepare a Pound!" he called out as Tsuki pushed out his limbs, sending the Shinx flying. Bruce stepped up and whacked the feline mid-air like a baseball player.

Then as quickly as it started the match ended. Pokémon really wanted to pick fights with him today. Nevertheless he wouldn't turn a duel down. It would show no honor while they were fight ready.

* * *

Belle nodded, glancing at Celisse, who was still staring intently at the battle. After a moment, she set her down and looked back up at Dante with wide eyes. "But Celisse would never do that. She's a good girl." Honestly, she did not think that her Charmander would do that to her in a battle. So far she'd been mostly content to listen to her commands so Belle saw no reason to believe that would change in the future. Dante sounded so sure of what he was saying though. She bit her lip, unsure of what to do. What exactly did he mean by saying that she would need to train it or else it would be out of her control? How was she meant to train it to do what she wanted if it was raging? Get a whip? That was hardly humane.

Shrugging she turned back to the kid and his crocodile. Dante didn't seem to want her answer question but that was fine. Shooting a sideways look at the man, she noticed him having a sort of longing look on his face. Hm maybe grown men weren't his type? Oh, Gawd. He was pedophile! What should she do? Back out slowly? Yes, that would seem less suspicious. After that, she could call the police officers and have him arrested. Well, she was _pretty _sure that you could get arrested for being a pedophile. Normally she would have consulted her father but that relationship wasn't going so well recently. Belle carefully took a few steps back from Dante, hoping that he was still watching the boy and therefore would not notice her. Naturally, Celisse made an slight snort and expelled a little puff of smoke, following her to where she stood. Great. _Now _she decided to follow her.

_"Dante is_ not _a pedophile,"_ Mewtwo said quickly in the Gym Leader's defense. He wouldn't have been able to stand being near the man if he was a child predator. _"He's remembering his days of when he had just started out as a Trainer. That is all."_

Belle turned around when she heard Miato's voice in her head, but, of course, he was nowhere in sight. Not wanting to speak out loud and seem crazy she focused, thinking carefully but still unsure if he would hear her. After a moment, she settled on what she wanted to say._'Are you sure? He was sort of leering at the boy. At least, I think it's a boy – perhaps an androgynous girl? It could be possible after all. She would not have gone through puberty yet and thus would be flat.'_

The cat turned his attention from the newbie to the Gym Leader, having watched the young male's battle through the man's mind and therefore eyes. _"Do you think the boy's trying to get your attention by battling every Pokémon that comes within his sights? A simple hello would suffice or is this some new Trainer-related custom I'm unaware of?"_

Honestly the way some Trainers and most humans behaved could be so confusing.

_"Honestly, I have no idea,"_ Dante said mentally to the Legendary, watching the awkward three-way battle unfold. It was impressive that the boy elected to stay and fight against the trio of wild Pokémon, rather than run, but nevertheless it was a bit wasteful. Three fully trained Pokémon against three wild ones that had never before seen each other, let alone battled together? Dante considered it to be a bit overkill. _'Again, he'll probably need a bit of work on technique,_' Dante thought, _'though for his first triple battle it was a passable showing_._' _Privately the Gym Leader hoped the kid was done. It looked more like a show put on for him than a Trainer honestly engaged in training, and Dante was starting to feel a little awkward.

_'Is Belle still nearby?'_ he thought to Mewtwo without taking his eyes off the newbie Trainer, whose battle was wrapping up. _'It would probably be a good idea for her to see this.'_

_"Turn around,"_ Mewtwo said dryly and silently agreeing with Dante about the boy's performance as he continued to watch the world through the man's eyes, _"she thinks she's being sneaky. She also thinks or thought you were a pedophile. I corrected her on that but you might want to reinforce the fact yourself."_

* * *

"Ugh, what's with this awful headache? Most annoying buzz ever," Chael grumbled to himself as he put his hands over his ears. It had happened a bit before and a lot after the battle. _'Crazy Pokédex must be acting up.'_he thought. Clicking three of his Pokéballs he returned his team and walked over to the Ace Trainer. "Hey I followed a fire here earlier but do you know what had happened?" The annoying buzz came back again.

"Who's the idiot playing the mosquito noise?" He scratched his ears as it stopped, about time too.

"There was a fire here a little earlier," Dante said, gesturing to the burned patch. "I don't know what caused it, but as a precaution I had my Pokémon extinguish the blaze. Never can be too careful with those things, especially with new Trainers on the route." He pointedly ignored the Trainer's comment about the mosquito noise - no reason to bring Mewtwo into this. _'__Lay off the commentary for a while unless it's urgent,'_ Dante thought privately. _'__Kid's hearing a mosquito noise.'_

Since he was usually in the know as to Mewtwo's psychic speech Dante hadn't noticed the typical buzz that others heard. It was only after his friend Rae (another one of the few humans who knew of the psycat's existence) had begun complaining about it that the Gym Leader realized that Mewtwo's speech wasn't always as silent as he would have liked. Not many recognized it for what it was but Dante found that being too careful with a Legendary in your house still usually wasn't enough.

"I'm Dante," he said to the newbie by way of introduction, extending a hand.

_'At least this Trainer isn't as cocky as that Elite Four.'_ Chael thought as he responded. "I'm Chael Riverton." Dante said he wasn't sure what started the fire but he had already made a hypothesis.

_'__For Arceus' sake, what did I do this time?'_ Dante thought exasperatedly. He made sure to indicate the girl with his free hand, hopefully stopping her slow retreat. "This is my student. She's a new Trainer like you. Her name is - "

Before he got to say her name she interrupted in a harsh tone. "You may call me Ms. Rutherford, nothing less." She didn't want a _commoner_ of all things to call her by a nickname - how horrible that would be! No, these things were best dealt with swiftly; otherwise they tended to think that you _liked _hanging around them, and tried to be "friends." Ew. She _was_ surprised to hear that Dante had called her his student. Well she hadn't been expecting that. She'd thought he just was there to tell her what to do and then he'd up and leave.

Chael barely had time to extend his hand as the girl's Charmander jumped on him. He lay on his back, the Charmander glaring. Either this lizard got too close to some patch of grass or there was a missed Ember. He glared daggers at the salamander as his hand coolly slid into his pocket. The girl was probably one of those rich-types. There were plenty of them back at Goldenrod. Fine clothing with rare Pokémon their mommy and daddy bought. Instead of addressing her by her requested name he said, "Whatever, Cinderella. Now please get your lizard off me." A click could be heard and a red ray shot out of his pocket, sending out his Totodile Argos (violent as Chael had discovered yesterday and a Water type to boot). He prepared a Water Gun but Chael shook his head and instead Argos growled. Essentially he was saying: "Back off or I obliterate you."

Belle frowned when he called her a name she didn't recognize. She'd heard it used before but had yet to study this. She was sure it wasn't from mythology and she doubted it had something to do with science so maybe it was the name of a character in a piece of literature that she had yet to read? She didn't know what it meant, so for now she took it as an insult. She tilted her head, watching in interest as the boy released his blue crocodile thing. Celisse, pleased with the challenge, turned around to face the other Pokémon, growling as she waved her tail flame near Chael's head.

Dante said she was new so he naturally assumed this fire lizard was hers. He could tell Argos was stronger already without the type advantage he had over the Charmander. Plus he had four other members only a click away in his pocket which he conveniently kept his hand in. "What? Afraid I might bite you while your newt burns me? Call it off," he ordered calmly. Keeping a cool head would be better than crying about things.

She scowled and turned her head away from him when he called her Charmander a newt. "Have you never been to school or studied some sort of biology? Newts are aquatic amphibians, not Pokémon." She shook her head. "Why do they let the commoners with no knowledge of _any_thing out into the world?" She sighed, looking back at Celisse. "My dearest, please come back to me. We don't want you getting any poor peoples' diseases do we? We should get you to a doctor to check you out." Celisse looked rather disgusted at this piece of information and so lightly leaped off the boy and trotted back to her looking smug. "There's a good sweetheart."

Chael stood, insulted. Poor? Diseased? "I recognize that your lizard is a Fire type. It was an insult. Now I challenge you to a Pokémon battle," he declared, spraying his Totodile with a Potion. Argos' wounds from the triple battle mostly disappeared and he was once again fight ready. Only a coward would turn down the challenge. If she was any good it would show her worth to him and he'd let the insults indirectly given be no more of a problem for now. If she lost it would give her a swift jab of humility. If she declined it would show weakness and an insult to her own honor.

"I'll keep it fair and use as many Pokémon as you see fit to use. Unless you fear a commoner would defeat your immense strength," he said, hiding a slight twinge of annoyance. He could control his emotions as well as any eleven-year-old. Taking out four other Pokéballs he promptly clicked the buttons on them and sent out his team. Besides Argos there was a Rattata named Fear, an Eevee called Tsuki, a Timburr who went by Bruce, and a Blitzle who answered to Lizzy.

This battle wasn't about revenge he decided it would never suffice and be pointless. This was to teach Cinderella a lesson. A hidden one but it was there. His electric blue eyes seemed to turn into ice as he awaited her answer. Dante could call it off but he had played it off as a simple battle.

* * *

Dante Serven – Akai Shi-Koret

Belle Rutherford – Kat the Strange

Mewtwo – Kenocka

Chael Riverton – Tsuki the Lunar Wind

Maximiliian "Max" Thomas Sharpe - Kaze Espada

Special thanks to Akai for going over this and making it awesome! If you happen to spot any inconsistencies in the story (something not italicized when it should be, something that needs to be spaced) then please feel free to tell me! It won't hurt my feelings at all! Just be specific about what needs fixing so I can do it quickly!


	4. Day One: Mid Afternoon

Disclaimer: Anything owned by Nintendo is owned by Nintendo. Anything owned by the owners are owned by the provided owners.

Speaking Parts: _'Thoughts' "Telepathy"_ "Vocalized Speech"

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE**: I feel the need to stress that I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON RESPONSIBLE for this piece of work. There are going to be MANY different writers involved with this series and it will take varying amounts of time to edit and piece together each chapter for everything to make sense. Some parts of everyone's writing may be cut out for the sake of storytelling, flow, and sensibility. Yes I may edit some parts so that they aren't so choppy ESPECIALLY if there are A LOT of mistakes. So to my co-writers PLEASE DO NOT FEEL OFFENDED if I happen to cut out a sentence or a paragraph that I feel doesn't make ANY sense in the long haul. I SPEND HOURS going over EVERYTHING just to make sure ONE SENTENCE makes sense in the overall story. If it doesn't then it's removed.

* * *

Day One: Mid-Afternoon

Belle stared blankly at the boy, confused. "Your lack of knowledge was meant to be an insult?" Well. Perhaps the poor _were _much stranger than she had originally thought. At him requesting a battle she shook her head. "Why on earth would I want to fight _you_? _You're_ not the Gym Leader; you're an insolent little boy. Besides, I never claimed to be strong." She shrugged. "You're the one brazenly declaring that you want to battle. This does not interest me. If you so desire a battle have you challenged the Gym yet?" She tilted her head, awaiting his answer. Celisse looked rather annoyed that her Trainer had decided against battling but made no move towards the boy. She was unimpressed by his team. Most of them looked _common_. How pitiful.

"The Gym Leader is on a leave of absence." Chael responded with a shrug. She was sizing up his team, probably on rarity. It didn't matter to him, as long as the ones he caught were faithful. "While I'm an insolent little boy you appear to be a spoiled brat." No, this was not going well. Not by a long shot. He had assumed it was an accident and had decided she was innocent of the matter of the fire. Now he didn't care about whether or not she was at fault. She had openly insulted him and his team and let her Charmander attack him while he walked over to say hello. It was a Trainer's obligation to accept a challenge when given. It was proper battle etiquette. It appeared Cinderella wasn't as prestigious as she had originally thought. "Ah, yes I forget. By the looks of your Charmander I'd say you don't even have any other Pokémon. Thus fearing a measly Water Gun would send him flying," he added sarcastically. He wasn't sure of the lizard's gender but he figured he was a guy. Most Charmanders were anyways.

Argos looked expectantly at Celisse. He gave a simple _hurring_ noise alligators made and a taunt of sorts. Her Trainer wouldn't let her battle while his made sure he received proper training. Chael was unaware, being a human and thus unable to understand Pokémon. To a human, it'd seem like deep breathing but the Fire type would probably know better.

A smile graced Belle's lips when she heard him call her a "spoiled brat." Typical peasants – anyone who had money and knew it became spoilt and corrupt according to them. She did not fault him for it though – he was only a little boy, he knew nothing of the world. He also assumed that she had no other Pokémon. She did not bother to educate him further on her Pokémon – there was no need – and hopefully the boy would be on his way soon. Unfortunately his blue thing had decided to make some sort of noise (in her opinion, it resembled a mating noise) at Celisse, who promptly opened her mouth and sent a series of red bolts into the sky before looking back at the blue thing with a grin.

Belle examined the blue thing and looked back at the kid. "You should return your Pokémon before you attract unwanted attention from wild ones. Your little blue thing is annoying my dearest Charmander."

"Ah yes, blue thing. Your vocabulary must be huge. You, know? I don't think I will," Chael dryly said, quite bored with this coward. "Unlike you, I welcome a challenge." This girl had insulted him in every way possible. His other Pokémon stood beside him, all glaring or giving some form of growl or angry sound. He wouldn't budge, obey, or listen to her. The only way he'd back off was that she gave a sincere apology or she battled him. The first option would, Arceus forbid, make her show respect to the lower classes. The second would result in a major butt kicking. They were the only two ways to quench his hostility for her rude remarks about him.

The socialite shook her head. He couldn't even withdraw his Pokémon when it became a problem. The reptile spat a ball of water that splashed near Celisse. Luckily the Charmander's speed was far superior and she dodged to the side, the water missing her by far, and she bared her teeth at him. Belle smiled at her. "Don't retaliate. If you do, you're no better than it." She'd learned the basics about Starter Pokémon if only because she'd needed something to read on the way over. She'd been after a fast Pokémon because it meant that dodging would be easier and it could attack faster. According to her charts Charmander was the best one for her because it was fast and had good attacking power for special moves – and it was adorable of course. She couldn't remember his blue thing's name, mostly because she thought it was too ugly – like, what was it? A little blue crocodile? That didn't even make any sense.

Apparently he was also deaf because he completely ignored her. Hmph. Well, she didn't want to stand here all day waiting for him to get manners. "You are now boring me and I feel I have nothing more to gain from this conversation. Goodbye." With that, she turned on her heels and stalked away, Celisse in tow.

* * *

Dante groaned inwardly. He'd been distracted by a phone call and hadn't had a chance to stop the fighting before Belle stalked off. She was naturally annoyed, and the other boy looked as though he was barely holding anger in check. _'__Mewtwo, make sure Belle doesn't get too far away,'_ he thought quickly to the psycat. The girl had committed one of the cardinal sins of being a Trainer already - refusing to battle - and the fact that she had a team of healthy Pokémon only made it worse. _'__Gonna have to tell her about that later,' _he thought.

"I apologize for my student's rudeness," Dante said to Chael. "She's new here and obviously never spent much time around Pokémon and Trainers before. Don't take it seriously." With any luck, he could at least mollify one of them.

Chael scratched the back of his head. "It's of no issue although I must congratulate you for your patience with her. After letting her Charmander tackle me, only to give insults I'd sooner strangle her." he said, humor in the strangling part. His Pokémon seemed to level up, without his notice. He returned all but Argos, who looked more like a Fire type with his anger. Chael had worked on his bloodlust the day prior but it was unrelated to this. That thing was a jerk to his Trainer, his friend, and thus, once his Trainer's back was to him and facing Dante, he gave chase.

"Sadly I see my Totodile is a lot like that Charmander. But so far I've kept him in check." Chael added, not knowing he was about to have the 'keeping in check' diminished. Chael turned around as his eyes widened. "Did she just?" he gasped, lost for words. Quickly he said, "I'll calm my Pokémon. You take care of the witch who just attacked him." With that he raced on. Cinderella had made quite the distance, he wasn't even near yet. However he could see the look in Argos's eyes. His Pokémon looked like the world was fighting him.

* * *

Argos jumped in front of Cinderella and Celisse, only to let loose a Scary Face. He showed his teeth, his jaws, his scales seemed to stand up at the same time. He had gone from a mere Totodile into a monster. The Charmander would find her precious speed dwindling as fear set in. This was an attack that couldn't miss unless she had used an attack like Double Team or Sand Attack prior.

Belle jumped when she saw the little blue freak jump in front of them, using some sort of move to make itself seem fearful. Celisse frowned, taking a step back. Her Trainer was unaffected. She snatched up her Charmander, holding her close as she said coldly, "I stopped being afraid of monsters years ago." The Totodile was right in front of her which was rather convenient. She figured that since she knew no Pokémon moves she'd do what she'd done before to protect Celisse. With no warning she drew her leg back and swiftly kicked the creature in the chest, hopefully to send it flying. "Stay the hell away from us, you little menace," she snapped as she did so.

Argos was punted back, heel grazing over his face. A bit of blood came out of his cheek. The girl gave the Totodile another scar, to match his others. A drop of blood fell in front of him as his eyes widened. She wasn't a girl anymore. He lunged, Water Gun blasting out of his mouth at a high pressured rate. This would hurt.

* * *

Dante had seen and heard enough. The two Trainers were going to have to be separated and forcefully. He allowed himself a moment of pity that he hadn't brought Xeon to scare the hell out of the both of them but assumed that the rest of his team would have to be enough. In a second he'd released Poseidon and Haxor, directing the two with swift and curt commands. The Kingdra let loose a low-level burst of water, knocking the Totodile down on its back and hovering menacingly over the Water type. Haxor meanwhile had interposed himself between Belle and the Pokémon, looming large over the small girl and brandishing its axe-edged tusks.

"That's _enough_," the Gym Leader said forcefully, directing the statement at both Trainers. "For Arceus' sake, if you want to have a battle, go at it. But this is a simple schoolyard brawl, not a sanctioned battle and I will not tolerate such childish behavior." He shot Belle a glare. "If you want to be a Trainer, you need to remember that it's your Pokémon that do the fighting, not you. A touch of humility might also serve you well - you're not always going to have the upper echelon to hang around with."

That said, he rounded on the other Trainer. "And you, Chael. I thought Belle here was the only one that needed help with controlling her Pokémon but evidently you could use some assistance as well. Don't be surprised if your Totodile gets injured because it's too aggressive and threatens others." He took a deep breath, attempting to regain his cool. "Now I suggest we all head to the Pokémon Center and deal with this like mature adults. I don't want any bad blood between you two."

* * *

The humans had gone back into the city and Mewtwo, playing shadow for the day, had followed them. The group had been in the Pokémon Center for a few hours now as the doctor in charge had apparently given the two newbies a dressing down that Dante couldn't rival no matter how experienced he was. Hacking into the Gym Leader's mind was how the cat knew what was going on. The man had given him what the cat could best describe as an ugly look mentally but allowed the intrusion. It was much easier to do this without the Hydreigon's dark aura clogging the air.

For almost thirty minutes straight the children had been listening to a lecture on just how dangerous attacking a Pokémon was, wild or tame, and how relying on nothing but potions was like trying to bandage a severe gut wound with simple office tape. Mewtwo didn't bother remembering what else had been discussed (if one could call the one-sided yelling a discussion) but was inordinately pleased at all the fussing for no real reason.

Hopefully both children would take what the doctor was saying to heart. The psycat knew that the girl wouldn't do anything to purposely hurt her team. She was quite protective of them even if attacking creatures that could overpower her with ease was decidedly unsound. The boy he had yet to formulate an opinion about yet. He was still young enough to have the ignorance of youth and childhood as his excuses for most of his actions.

_"Is the boy going to be traveling with you as well,_" asked Mewtwo with some disdain to his voice. Having the boy along would make following the girl and Dante more difficult than it had to be and he had no desire to allow himself to be seen again. The Ranger from before _still_ hadn't been located yet.

_'I wasn't planning on it,'_ Dante said, watching as Belle's Pokémon were healed by the Center's staff. _'__Arceus knows I already have enough to worry about with just Belle.'_ As soon as they were out of the Pokémon Center Dante planned on giving her a short dressing-down about the facts of her new existence as a Pokémon Trainer. She couldn't exactly afford to go making enemies with everyone she met simply because she thought they were "common." _'__And I thought I had a rich upbringing,' _he winced silently.

Something buzzed from deep within the recesses of his pocket, distracting Dante from his thoughts. His phone was vibrating. Dante pulled the device from his pocket, flipping it open and checking the screen. He'd just received a text message from Blyse City Gym's substitute. Apparently the true leader was still out but given the amount of new Trainers waiting to challenge the gym the League had scrounged up someone else to fill the position. Additionally, the replacement mentioned something about a note he'd found left behind in the Gym - a note by a certain Chael Riverton. _'__Guess the kid's getting his wish granted,'_ Dante thought, sending a quick reply before heading outside. With any luck, the kid was still around.

Fortunately, the Gym Leader found Chael just outside the entrance to the Pokémon Center. "It's your lucky day, kid," Dante said to him. "They've found a temp to fill in at the Blyse City Gym and they're looking for you."

"Great. You seem like you know about Gym Leaders. Any tips?" He wanted to train specifically Argos and Fear a little bit more. He lightly tapped the bench in which he had been sitting on. He'd be the first Trainer in this batch to challenge a Gym and maybe the first to get a badge. The three Trainers he had met the day before looked like they could hardly pass one route without an injury. Maybe one there looked determined enough to go the distance besides himself.

Nervousness got the better of him. Getting up Chael said, "If you guys are still in the area I'd like to travel with you for a bit rather than blindly going through an unknown region alone." With that he walked to the gym. The doors were shut and the area was empty. He was the first challenger of many. What happened after this would decide how the others were looked upon. He placed both palms on the double doors and gave it a shove.

Mewtwo's voice was flat and meant to be a statement but still held the air of a question. _"You're not considering actually doing as the child requests are you?" _He didn't like the idea of having to dodge into the various foliage found alongside the commonly traveled routes if the boy did intend to travel with Dante and the girl. He didn't like the boy if he were being honest with himself. His utter refusal to take the girl's decision not to battle at face value, his arrogant and outdated concepts of what honor consisted of, it left the psychic's lips curled in distaste.

The cat didn't like that he was sitting on the black roof of Blyse's Pokémon Center while a heat advisory was in effect without even mentioning the humidity. Sitting hunched over in the lessening shade of the air conditioning system wasn't improving his worsening mood either. The Ralts that the girl had caught earlier could probably sense his irritation even from the top of the building's roof. Breaking the lock to the building's stairwell roof access would be easy but an alarm might be installed just in case someone of ill repute tried that route. Unless he chose to leave the city without the Gym Leader and his new pupil (an idea that was beginning to lather up nicely) then the psycat was stuck where he was at and he was going to be hot and dehydrated while he was at it.

Dante waved Chael off without a response, ignoring Mewtwo's question as well for the moment. Having the kid travel with them was out of the question - Mewtwo had already been seen by far too many people that day – but he felt somewhat bad about refusing the kid's offer. It _would _be nice having someone else along for the ride to train with Belle. The two could certainly use the company of another newbie as they traveled rather than being stuck with a Gym Leader and a sullen Legendary for Arceus-knew how long.

_"Give me a second to figure that one out, Mewtwo,__"_ Dante replied to the psycat's query. They had at least until the kid's gym battle was over though to be honest it would be easier to leave town now before he came back. Then Dante remembered that they couldn't really leave until Belle had claimed the first badge as well and groaned internally. _'__We should be getting back out on the route soon then so she can keep training. I don't want to be stuck in Blyse for too long.'_

Dante headed back inside the Pokémon Center, taking a quick glance around for Belle and finding her nowhere in sight. _'__Odd_,_'_ he thought, looking once again. She wouldn't be upstairs - as far as he knew, she had no one to trade with and no battles awaiting her - and the basement of the center was still off-limits. A sinking feeling started in Dante's stomach. If he'd lost Belle already, and if word got out that he was the last one seen with her... _'__Mewtwo, do you know where Belle is?'_ he asked the psycat. _'__I can't find her anywhere.'_

Mewtwo wordlessly stared at the water bottle being offered to him with no hidden intent before answering Dante, _"On the Center's roof offering me a water bottle."_ If he sounded a little more than surprised he was. It wasn't that he was unused to kind gestures - Dante allowing him to freely live in his spare bedroom and Rae (a friend of the Gym Leader) keeping quiet about him were perfect examples - but the girl had only just met him. Kindness from complete strangers would forever throw him off balance.

The Gym Leader sighed in relief, almost doubling over. He could only guess as to her parent's reactions but given Belle's behavior and her outfit she was clearly from a rich family - a family rich enough to afford lawyers that could sue the pants off of Dante if they so chose. _'__Thanks be to Arceus,'_ he thought as he headed for the elevator._ '__I'm heading up now then. Try to stay out of trouble._'

As he entered the elevator, Dante thought over the second part of Mewtwo's message. _'__Offered him a water bottle?' _he thought, curious. The girl seemed to be unreasonably interested in the cat. Sure, he was certainly a unique specimen - Rae had clearly noted that on their first meeting - but most everyone else who'd seen Mewtwo was politely interested for only a short while before treating him just like any other Pokémon. New Trainers were even less interested - they just assumed he was another new Pokémon that they'd never seen before and left it at that.

But Belle seemed to always come back to the psycat. It seemed like an innocent curiosity, one such as a sheltered child might have around Pokémon for the first time, but she was never this intrigued by even her starter, Celisse. It was something else - an unconscious recognition that Mewtwo was far more than he appeared to be. At least, that's what Dante put it down to. _'__And let's hope she never learns the truth,'_ he thought as the elevator doors slid open to reveal the roof.

* * *

Why did she ever decide to leave Iclea Town? This was a stupid, idiotic mistake and now she was paying for it. She walked back to the Pokémon Center sullenly, but paid attention to what the doctor was telling them. The whole time she ignored the little _shit _that had been unable to how to call off his Pokémon.

As he was apparently going outside she remained inside, settling on one of the seats and releasing her other Pokémon while Celisse sat next to her. Lucius's reaction was quick - he flattened his body to the ground, ears set back and looking at everyone that passed by as though they were potential enemies, sparks dancing off his fur. Lily seemed rather amused by this, poking him with her paw several times just to make jump. Gabrielle, though, was the most interesting - as soon as she was out of her Pokéball she seemed to panic for a moment, before latching on to Belle's leg, clinging to it like a child on their first day of school, trembling. The Trainer smiled and gently reached down to lift the Ralts up, cuddling it to her shoulder, where it continued to tremble. "Shh sweetie shh. It's alright," she crooned, patting its cold little back. Slowly, she recalled what her Pokédex had said about the Ralts species - they warmed up when they sensed cheerfulness.

Belle looked around the room - most Trainers were sitting with their heads hung, waiting for the status report on their injured Pokémon. She winced, looking back at her trembling Pokémon. "Shh. We'll get out of here soon, okay? Soon." Lily, now bored with Lucius's antics, leapt lightly into Belle's lap, despite the warning growl from Celisse. The Eevee, after a long moment of thinking, leaned over and licked Gabrielle's back. The Ralts' trembling slowed, but didn't stop as she turned to look at what had done that. "Veee!" Lily announced, wiggling her tail in a pleased manner. Gabrielle's head tipped up so that they could both see the little face underneath, murmuring a soft "Raaalts," before turning back to cuddling Belle's shoulder.

"Alright my dears. I think it would be best if we went outside, now, okay? I think that annoying kid is gone." Naturally, her Pokémon made no move to get off her. It took a few minutes for Belle to realize that Gabrielle did not want to get off her shoulder. She'd managed to return Lily and Lucius, but the Ralts was still apparently too terrified to move. With a sigh, she came to the conclusion that she'd have to carry her around for a little bit to calm her down. For now, the best solution would be to get her away from all the Trainers. She stood, one arm still supporting her Pokémon, and Celisse slid off her seat, looking curious as to what her Trainer was up to now. Belle huffed, fanning herself with her free hand, and stalked over to the vending machine. She inserted the required money, retrieving a small bottle of water. "Come on, Gabby. Let's go upstairs, shall we?" She heard a muffled noise come from the Charmander and so she shrugged and walked over to the lift, pushing the button and waiting.

As soon as the doors opened she stepped inside with Celisse. Belle stared at the buttons for a moment, confused. Why was there no one there to push the buttons for her? She stood there for a couple of minutes, until someone else entered, and smiled at her. "Uh can I help you, miss?"

Belle smiled back at him, pleased with his offer. "Ah, yes, thank you. Could you please take me to the roof?"

The guy stared back, slightly confused, but still smiled. "Sure?" He reached over and pressed the top button, stepping back. Celisse was curled up in the corner and exhaled a little puff of smoke when he came near her. The wait in the lift was somewhat awkward, and so the boy turned to her again, just as Gabby was starting to wriggle again, clearly alarmed at something. "My name is Jacob." He stepped back again, and had the misfortune of stepping on the Charmander's tail.

Celisse leapt to her feet with a snarl, instantly emitting a cloud similar to what she had been doing before - but on a much larger scale. The black smoke quickly filled the small area, causing both the Trainers to cough and a small alarm to be set off. Belle held her glove up to her mouth, trying to diminish how much of this she would take in and pressing Gabby's head to her shoulder, hoping that the little thing wouldn't be too harmed. Finally, the doors open and they both stumbled out, Celisse trailing behind in a pleased manner. The smoke followed them out of the lift but dissipated relatively quickly into the surrounding air. She coughed again looking back at the guy who seemed both shocked and confused. Belle laughed nervously. "Sorry about that. I-" She didn't get to finish her sentence as she took off to the stairs and didn't look back.

Gabby was, by now, freaking out. She was letting out a high keening noise, discomforted by something in the vicinity. Looking around, Belle spotted Miato hunched over. "Oh, you poor thing! Celisse, hold Gabby for me." Rather amazingly, the Charmander took the Ralts out of her hands and held it to her shoulder, much as Belle had just done. She hurried over to the Legendary, pulling out the water bottle and offering it to him. "Are you alright? Were you too hot?"

The cat finally sat up from his sphinx-like position, the water bottle floated out of and away from the girl's hand, and unscrewed itself invisibly. Globules of water floated out of the bottle and popped into his mouth. A few dropped purposely on his head and he felt himself cooling down slightly, it was enough to stop his panting for now.

_"Are you always this giving to random Pokémon you've only just met,"_ asked the cat just to break the silence.

Belle watched in fascination as the water bottle detached itself from her hand and undid its own lid, blobs of water emerging from the bottle and into Miato's mouth and on his head. This must be telekinesis - though she was unsure if he was having to use the actual move for this or whether it was just part of his natural psychic ability. The faint tingling had come back but quickly vanished again when he spoke to her directly. She smiled at him, looking down when she felt something brush against her leg. Celisse had put Gabby down and she was making her way over to Miato with her head bowed. When she reached him she looked up, a look of awe on her face.

Belle shrugged, assuming it was a psychic thing. In response to his question, she replied, "Only to the ones who save my life. I owe you - the very least I can do is give you some water. If you're still hot, I could get you some ice cream - if you eat ice cream. Or you could go for a swim. I don't know what people usually do when they're hot - it's always snowing in Iclea." Speaking of swimming she figured that she should find a Water type soon. If this unnatural heat kept up she'd need _something_that could cool her down on command seeing as now there were no servants around to provide refreshments.

Mewtwo shrugged her words off. In the grand scheme of things he'd acted without thinking. If the girl's spitfire personality had surfaced before she'd had a chance to panic then he wouldn't have had to step in. It really wasn't a big deal and the girl didn't owe him her life as far as he was concerned.

_"What is your mistress' name?"_ asked Mewtwo of the Ralts. It seemed less rude to ask one of the girl's team than the human herself if she had introduced herself already. _"What do you want,"_ he asked the Ralts that was looking at him with obvious reverence. It made him feel awkward.

Gabrielle blinked up at Mewtwo, red eyes wide. In a soft tone, she replied, _"Her name appears to be Belle, O powerful one."_ She could not tell exactly what he was, but she could sense the pure power emanating from him - she'd never sensed anything like this. It was... humbling. _"O powerful one, why do you reside here? Why are you not free?"_

_"I am free,"_ said the cat, nodding his head in appreciation for the information. _"I choose to be here out of lack of anything better to do with my time."_

Gabrielle tilted her head, confused. _"But... you can be free. Why do you not hide from Trainers who wish to capture you? Why do you not stay away from these humans?"_ She lowered her head, saying in a quieter tone,_"You could escape from everyone so that you don't have to feel what they do O powerful one."_

Now Mewtwo understood what the other psychic was agonizing over. She was an empath and had to live the emotions of everyone around her. He hadn't noticed it at first but now that he was paying attention it was obvious. It would temper with time but with one so young it had to be a difficult adjustment. His creators had blunted those abilities from truly forming before they'd begun to develop so he had no advice to offer on the matter, only condolences.

_"My own abilities are lesser than yours in that way so being around others isn't always a chore. Their minds is all together different. It will get better in time,"_ he offered. _"Perhaps you should request to retreat to your Pokéball? They help to lessen the flow of sensory input from what I've gathered. That might help you."_

Gabby nodded somewhat reluctantly at Mewtwo. _"Thank you for your time, O powerful one."_ She lowered her head again before trailing back over to her mistress.

* * *

"Giratina, it's hot out here," Dante swore as he strode across the roof. "What are you doing up here Belle? I thought we were headed back out to the route for some more training?" He gave Mewtwo a nod by way of hello, with the hidden subtext of: "What the hell are you doing up here?" A Pokémon Center wasn't exactly the safest place to roost. There was no need to answer the Gym Leader's question. Mewtwo was on the roof dying of heatstroke because he was stupidly following Dante around. The human already knew that.

Belle gestured to Gabrielle, who was making her soft, murmuring noise to Miato. "Gabby was really uncomfortable downstairs. Well, actually, she was freaking out because of all the negative feelings down there. She didn't want to return, she seemed too scared, and so I decided to move her away from everyone, so that she could calm down." Belle looked down to find Gabby pulling on her dress. "What is it, sweetie?" she asked as she crouched down. She felt a light pull at her belt and saw that the Ralts was trying to get at her Pokéball. "Oh, you want to go back in? Alright." She pulled the device out, aiming it at the Ralts, who vanished in a beam of red light. She stood and dusted herself off.

She looked back at Dante, saying, "How did you find us?" Celisse stalked over to Belle and sniffed her stocking before plopping herself down on her ass smugly. She was relishing in the heat, her tail flame slightly brighter now.

"Lucky guess," Dante replied as the elevator doors opened up behind him. He wasn't about to reveal any more of Mewtwo's powers than the cat was comfortable with. While it may have been obvious that the Pokémon was a Psychic type, Dante preferred caution. Besides, Belle might not be able to put something as simple as that together.

* * *

Max spent another few minutes in the Pokémon Center pondering about the next direction he wanted to go. _'__Hmm, Gabron Ruins are just down the road from here. Maybe, I could stop by there and collect a few archaeological items.' _His mental wanderings were interrupted by a cheery voice from the orange haired nurse.

"Max, sir your Pokémon are fully healed." The nurse said.

"Thank you, Miss Joie. You always do a wonderful job." He replied with a wink.

Joie blushed. The nurse spoke again. "Max, there seems to be a few Trainers on the roof. Can you, um, check on them to make sure they aren't causing trouble?"

Max not about ruin this moment, replied ever so smoothly. "It would be my pleasure, beautiful." Max strutted to the elevator, pressed the small, round metallic button, and struck a pose to impress the young nurse as he awaited the elevator's arrival. The machine rang with a mechanical ding as it arrived, and the metal doors slid open revealing the wood interior. Max stepped in proudly and hit the button to the roof. Max whistled a short tune as the elevator ascended to the height of the Center.

Another mechanical ding signal announced his arrival and he stepped into the small concrete room that protected the elevator from the harshness of the weather. Max pushed open the heavy door that separated the roof from the elevator room. The roof was bright and the weather was hot and sticky like barbecued Blaziken arms. Max's eyes adjusted to the scene. A man, a girl, and a large Pokémon were idling on the roof. The man looked familiar and the Pokémon a tiny bit familiar as well. The man's image suddenly came to him, it was Dante!

"Hello Dante! Long time no see and an interesting place to meet as well." Max cried out to his friend. Dante was Max's first friend in Etrua. He had met him in a night club in Deres. He extended his hand for a handshake and made careful note of the other two. One was a young girl, maybe a new Trainer (Max had seen quite a few since he arrived in Blyse), who was obviously rich judging by her high-class, posh clothing. The other was an extremely unfamiliar Pokémon. Max knew quite a lot of Pokémon but not this one. The Pokémon still looked like he had seen it before. He had seen a Pokémon like it in an archaeological text book. He would have to ask Dante about it.

* * *

Dante Serven – Akai Shi-Koret

Belle Rutherford – Kat the Strange

Mewtwo – Kenocka

Chael Riverton – Tsuki the Lunar Wind

Maximiliian "Max" Thomas Sharpe - Kaze Espada


End file.
